Hyderabad doctor falls for fake Finance Minister video scam, loses Rs 68.3 lakh
Cyber Fraud
Hyderabad: In a shocking cyber fraud case, a 74-year-old retired doctor from Kachiguda was allegedly duped of over Rs 68.3 lakh by scammers who lured her through a fake online stock trading platform. The fraudsters reportedly promoted it using a fabricated video advertisement featuring Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
According to the news reports, the victim came across the video advertisement on July 8, 2025, which appeared to show the finance minister endorsing an online trading platform identified as “S**e*a.” The advertisement promised unusually high returns through share trading and urged viewers to invest immediately. Believing the endorsement to be genuine, the retired doctor contacted the number displayed in the advertisement.
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The victim, in 11 transactions, deposited amounts ranging between 75,000 and 20 lakh from her bank account, totalling 68.3 lakh between July and Dec 2025. "Each time I attempted to withdraw the displayed balance on the website, my request was rejected, and I was asked to invest more," the victim told police, reports TOI.
Realising she had been defrauded, the doctor contacted the national cyber-fraud helpline, 1930, and subsequently filed a formal complaint with the Hyderabad Cyber Crime police on Tuesday.
As per TOI, based on her complaint, police registered a case under Sections 66-C and 66-D of the Information Technology Act and Sections 111(2)(b) (organised crime), 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 338 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 340(2) (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Also Read:Retired IIT Bombay medical officer loses Rs 4.62 crore in cyber fraud; Two arrested
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