Delhi Salesman's $120 Loss Busts $108M Trading Scam

A small-time salesman earning $215 a month just helped take down one of India's biggest cyber trading scams, proving that standing up to fraud can make a massive difference.

Arvind Gupta, 28, works loading rexine sheets in Delhi to support his wife and two young sons. To boost his modest income, he started stock trading five years ago, carefully investing small amounts on legitimate platforms and watching his money slowly grow.

In February, everything changed when he received a WhatsApp message about TRADEMAKERALGO, an algorithmic trading app that promised automated profits. The pitch was tempting: the app would handle all trades automatically, charge just $0.12 per transaction instead of the usual $0.24, and was even listed on Google Play Store.

Gupta did his homework, searching for the company online before investing. On April 3, he put in $120 and immediately saw daily profits of $8 to $10 rolling in. Then he hit a wall when he tried to withdraw even $1.20 to test the system.

The app's "debit" button didn't work. When he called customer service, they insisted he invest more money before withdrawing anything. That's when Gupta spotted more problems: an Aadhaar number where bank details should be, a constantly changing QR code, and aggressive demands for more cash.

Instead of losing more money chasing his initial investment, Gupta did something many fraud victims don't do. He immediately filed a complaint with Delhi's Central District Cyber police station.

The Bright Side

That single complaint unraveled everything. Police discovered the operation spanned two states, with a Bengaluru software engineer named Ravi Rathore running the backend while accomplices in Madhya Pradesh handled calls and money transfers. In May, officers arrested Rathore, cricket coach Sudama, and call center operator Vikas Rathore for swindling over 600 people out of $108 million.

Gupta's quick action and willingness to report the fraud saved countless others from losing their savings. His case is now helping law enforcement tackle the rising wave of investment scams, which account for nearly 70% of all financial fraud in India.

For someone who considers himself "relatively lucky" to have lost only $120, Gupta proved that ordinary citizens have extraordinary power when they refuse to stay silent about crime.