A 48-year-old coaching class owner in Thane district was duped of more than Rs 1.88 crore in a share trading scam that started with the membership of a WhatsApp group, police said on Wednesday.

As per the complainant, an unidentified person added him to the WhatsApp group `STOCK Vanguard (F)' in March, said an official.

The group had 170 members and advice about share trading used to be posted there, he told police.

The complainant found the advice trustworthy and invested money in the recommended shares, following which he was added to another group, `STOCK-Vanguard-VIP', the official said.

Three persons, who identified themselves as Isha, Divya, and Raj Rupani, contacted him, showed him some kind of `SEBI certificate' to gain his trust, and told him that he could make huge profits by investing through an app called CINVEN/IC SERVICES, the complainant said.

He invested more than Rs 1.88 crore, but when he demanded his money back, there was no response, he claimed.

A case of cheating under Indian Penal Code section 420 (cheating) was registered at Vitthalwadi police station but no arrests have been made yet, officials said.

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