One more day, another investment scam.
The real question isn’t how it happened, but why it keeps happening.
Is it because scammers are getting smarter, or because victims, driven by the greed for quick gains, blindly trust and follow them?
We can’t keep pointing fingers solely at the scammers. They’re doing what they set out to do—scam people. The real issue lies in why, despite endless resources, news stories, and real-life cases, people fail to recognize the warning signs and fall for promises of high returns.
In short, victims falling into their trap are just making their tasks simpler and giving them more confidence to run their evil tactics.
Think about it: if such easy, handsome returns were truly possible, no one would ever struggle financially. Everyone would be rich by now.
Most of the time, when we hear about these scams, we imagine shady figures—some mafia or a gang operating from abroad. But the recent news from Bengaluru shocked everyone. Cyber Police arrested 4 sales executives of Axis Bank, along with their manager for their involvement in a trading scam of ₹97 crores.
Yes, you read that right.
Bank officials, trusted by people, were found exploiting that trust to scam investors.
Let’s get into the details of how the scam came into the picture.
How Cyber Police Identified This Scam?
It all started around March when Cyber Police received a complaint from a victim based in Yelahanka resident in North Bengaluru. As per the complaint, the scammer added a victim to one WhatsApp group where the stock tips were provided.
Further to lure the users, the scammer sends the message of guaranteed and high returns of up to 10 times on investment.
The victim initiated an investment with the amount of ₹50,000. Soon after that, he received WhatsApp messages with big gains on investment. This lured him to add more funds and eventually, he ended up adding ₹1.5 crores by June 2024.
He got suspicious when the scammer asked him to pay ₹75 lakh in the name of ‘server management fees’ to withdraw money and returns.
He soon reported the case to Cyber Crime and during the same time, Cyber Crime received 254 similar complaints linked with same accounts across the nation.
On further investigation, police found that the total scam value was around ₹97 crores. The amount was transferred and circulated in 6 bank accounts that were opened by the bank staff only.
The police arrested Kishore Sahu, the bank manager of the Nagarabhavi branch of Axis Bank along with 3 sales executives named Manohar, Karthik & Rakesh.
Along with them, 6 other people were identified including a woman who was involved in the holding of fake accounts. Four among them-Lakshmikanta, Raghuraj, Kengegowda, and Mala CP were taken into custody for holding fake accounts while 2 others are absconding.
What Exactly Do People Need to Learn?
This story is like many things we see every day. Just like how people ignore basic warnings on the road, they ignore the signs of scams.
For example, we know we shouldn’t cross a red signal, but how often do we see people doing it, thinking they’ll save time? Or how some don’t wear seatbelts, assuming “nothing will happen to me.”
The same mindset applies to money and investments.
When something seems risky, we ignore the warning signs, thinking “Nothing can happen to me”, making it easier for scammers to meet their objective.
Scammers promise huge returns, and instead of questioning it, people buy it with the hope of earning quick money, just like running a red light.
But just like breaking road rules can lead to accidents, ignoring financial red flags leads to loss of their hard-earned money.
The victim in this story didn’t pay attention to the obvious signs like promises of 10x returns. This was like the red signals we shouldn’t cross.
The habit of ignoring warnings becomes second nature. We think, “It won’t happen to me.” But just like accidents on the road, scams happen because of our negligence.
The lesson is simple: if we don’t change this habit of ignoring warnings we’ll keep getting into trouble.
It’s time to be more careful, listen to the signs, and understand that shortcuts rarely lead to good results. When it comes to life and finances one must stick to the rules and warnings to safeguard themselves.
