A female engineer loses 9 million after being deceived by an investment offer received via a WhatsApp message.

A retired professional engineer in her late sixties has lost over nine million rupees after falling victim to a fraudulent online investment scheme operating through the WhatsApp social media network. According to the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Forum (SLCERT), the victim of this scam had completed over forty years of service in both the public and private sectors of the country.

She owned a house in a well-known housing complex and had bank deposits exceeding 10 million rupees, living a financially stable life under a private retirement home facility. Despite having a higher education and a good understanding of modern technological tools such as online banking and transport applications, she fell into a cunning trap set by an organized group of fraudsters posing as investment advisors.

The Computer Emergency Response Forum states that this financial fraud began with an unusual WhatsApp message claiming that the invested money would be doubled every three months. Believing in these high returns, she started depositing money, and the fraudsters even paid her some returns in the initial months. This made her firmly believe that the business was legitimate. However, it was later revealed that the initial returns she received were not earned from any other investment but were a portion of the money she herself had provided. This is a common method used in such fraudulent financial schemes.

Over time, the payments became limited and then stopped completely. The fraudsters then presented various false reasons for the issues that arose, enticing her to invest more money. In this manner, her total investment made on several occasions amounted to nearly 10 million rupees. By the time she became suspicious and sought assistance from the Computer Emergency Response Forum, the fraudsters were pressuring her to even sell her house and invest that money into the scheme. The Computer Emergency Response Forum immediately intervened and prevented her from further financial ruin. Due to the victim meticulously maintaining records of all her financial transactions, the forum has taken steps to refer the incident, along with all available evidence, to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further investigation, and it is now being treated as a major financial crime with extensive investigations underway.