IPO Fraud: What is It? How a Hyderabad Man’s Life Savings Were Destroyed by a Bogus Facebook Ad -

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IPO Fraud: What is It? How a Hyderabad Man’s Life Savings Were Destroyed by a Bogus Facebook Ad

Hyderabad, Telangana: A 37-year-old Asif Nagar private worker lost Rs 2.8 crore as a result of falling for a well-planned stock market investment fraud.

A Facebook ad offering early access to a profitable initial public offering (IPO) prompted the victim to reply. He was taken to a fake website run by con artists after following the link, and they immediately added him to a WhatsApp group pretending it was for routine IPO talks.

Through a fake app called ASKMIN, the scammers, among them a person posing as “Priya,” convinced him to participate in initial public offerings (IPOs). To establish credibility, they first credited the victim’s account with ₹4.9 lakh, claiming it was a return on investment. Overwhelmed by this seeming success, the individual engaged in a number of trades from March 7 to April 21, 2025, ultimately losing an incredible ₹2.8 crore.

False Balances, False Promises, and the Tightening Trap

The scammers wanted an extra 15% processing fee as the victim tried to withdraw his investments. In order to extract additional money, they created the appearance of affluence by falsely displaying a balance of ₹32.3 crore on the ASKMIN app while blocking any attempts at withdrawal.

In addition to that, the victim knew he was ensnared when he continued to receive demands for more money without receiving any payment. Finally, in a last-ditch effort, he went to the Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police to file a formal complaint.

The development of fraudulent investment applications, deliberate manipulation of confidence through modest initial gains, and psychological exploitation to extract ever-larger sums were all exposed by police investigations as standard methods of operation.

Criminal Case Filed Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the IT Act

The Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police filed a case under many laws in response to the victim’s complaint:

Information Technology Act Sections 66-C and 66-D (identity theft and impersonation deception)
Section 318(4) (fraudulently obtaining property delivery)
Section 319(2) (personation cheating)
Sections 340(2), 336(3), and 338 (different forgery-related offenses)
Section 111(2)(b) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with organized crime

According to police officials, efforts are being made to track down the digital traces of the scam and find the culprits, who are said to be employing sophisticated online anonymity techniques to operate from numerous places.

About The Author

Yogesh Naager is a content marketer who specializes in the cybersecurity and B2B space. Besides writing for the News4Hackers blogs, he also writes for brands including Craw Security, Bytecode Security, and NASSCOM.