Bhubaneswar: During the investigation of a case pertaining to the crypto trade, the Odisha EOW came to know about the use of photographs of noted personalities from different walks of life to lure gullible investors.
It was noticed that some “Indian Whatsapp numbers” operated from China are being used to lure Indian Crypto traders to sell cryptocurrency worth hundreds of Crores rupees to scammers sitting outside India.
These China-based scammers usually offer higher/ lucrative rates (compared to market rates) to lure Indian crypto traders. These scammers generally meet them on various crypto exchange platforms and establish one-on-one links to make the deal, the EOW stated.
However, these scammers prefer P2P deals (Peer to Peer deals) instead of exchange-based deals. Most crypto traders (who are interested in better deals) are not aware of the criminal/fraud antecedent of the other party.
Once the deal is struck, the scammers transfer the money from their India-based shell companies/ enterprises’ bank accounts to crypto-traders and in turn, Crypto-traders transfer the Crypto currencies to the scammer’s account. Thus money is siphoned out of India, the EOW added.
Advisory to Crypto-Traders
- Crypto-traders must verify the antecedent of crypto buyers especially when the amount is huge;
- Crypto traders must check the details of company to check whether it’s a genuine or shell company;
- Generally these shell companies’ are newly created having very low authorized and paid up capitals;
- If they are offered higher/ better rate then prevailing market rate, it should be seen suspiciously;
- They should avoid P2P trade with suspicious buyers;
- While chatting on WhatsApp they should insist on video chat so that they can see the person on other side;
- In case of any suspicion, they should report the matter to police/112/1930.
