India, Oct. 14 -- Two families in the city are still struggling to understand how their loved ones - an ambitious 20-year-old student and a 61-year-old retiree - were both pushed to die by suicide within months of each other, by online frauds that preyed on their financial vulnerability.

What began as small investments and contractual promises ended in deaths - one under the wheels of a speeding train, the other in a Navi Mumbai home.

Student's dream turned into nightmare

On July 17, a 20-year-old Mass Media and graphic design student was found dead on the railway tracks between Ghatkopar and Vikhroli. His father, a customs officer, still remembers his son's voice on the phone that morning - tense, desperate, and pleading for help.

Tw...