TL;DR Breakdown
- India police reminds locals about crypto scams and tells them to be careful.
- Says that most crypto scam cases are trading or investment fraud.
- Urges people not to be greedy to prevent them from crypto scams.
The Indian police have sounded a warning to locals not to fall victim to any cryptocurrency scam in the wake of surging crypto scams.
The Additional Commissioner of Police Shikha Goel warned Indians at an event in Hyderabad, India, about the rise in cybercrime. She revealed that scammers use various methods to dupe investors.
Speaking on how they operate, the officer said fraudsters use lucrative investment opportunities, illegitimate bank transfers and cryptocurrencies to dupe unsuspecting victims.
She stated that the police handled sixteen cases involving cryptocurrency scams.
The police chief advised citizens to invest in crypto only through reputed and long-established players in the field and said coins should not be transferred to unauthorized private wallets.
Money can’t be traced back, be careful India police warns
According to the police commissioner in an interview, Virtual money can never be traced back and returned to the original owner. She said once people have been duped, it’s a dead end.
Explaining the modus operandi of the ‘untraceable’ fraudsters, Ms. Goel said that people get a WhatsApp call or message from the fraudsters who will advise them to invest in cryptocurrency and get huge returns. “They will send a link to a website or app to the victims and explain them how to purchase cryptocurrency. After a successful purchase, the fraudsters ask them to transfer it to their private wallet for much higher returns,” she said.
As soon as the cryptocurrency is transferred to their wallets, the tricksters encash it by other exchanges and sell them for their personal gain. With a majority of the websites or mobile applications operating from either China or Nigeria, the police are facing difficulties in nabbing them. On many occasions, they were not even able to get the IP logs of the fraudsters, as the trading is done through the victims’ logs.
Goel revealed that 14 out of the 16 crypto fraud cases were directly related to investment and trading. Scammers convince victims to transfer their newly purchased cryptocurrencies for higher profits, which according to Goel, is greed.
