A Salt Lake resident lost more than Rs 2.85 crore that he had invested in schemes offered to him by fraudsters who promised to double his money within a year, police said.

Two men were arrested in connection with this case early on Saturday, a senior officer of Bidhannagar Commissionerate said.

According to the officer, the two men contacted Arup Kanti Das posing as officials from a private bank through Facebook and invited him to join a WhatsApp group.

The men then sent him several WhatsApp messages that offered schemes which asked him to invest in the stock market that guaranteed doubling investments within a year, the officer said.

“Once Das expressed interest in them he was sent a link and asked to download an app,” the officer said.

Once he downloaded the app that mirrored the stock market, he was allegedly asked to invest in specific stocks.

“The complainant started investing and had sent more than Rs 2.89 crore to various accounts through the app. He only realised that he had been duped when the fraudsters started controlling his bank accounts with the use of screen-sharing software. They also refused to share the profits,” an investigating officer of Salt Lake cyber crime police station said.

Das lodged a police complaint on April 28.

The police started probing the case and managed to track down the money trail and the internet protocol address (of the devices used by fraudsters) from the banking transactions.

A team from cyber crime police station in Salt Lake then zeroed in on Gopal Jha, 24, a Kalighat resident, and Subur Ghosh, 26, who hails from Howrah’s Domjur and arrested them.

The cops said that the two had duped several others in similar method.

“We are trying to trace the money that Das has lost,” said the officer.