An Indian native is being held in connection to a cryptocurrency investment scam worth Rs. 1.1 crore (approximately $122,000). The City Cyber Crime Police accused the Gujarat native of scamming an unsuspecting victim by promising him high returns through investments in digital assets.
The accused, Parmar Prateek Bipinbhai of Bapunagar, was taken into custody by the Indian police. The 25-year-old was arrested in Ahmedabad, with the Indian police noting that he had already converted the stolen funds into crypto and other forms of digital assets before smuggling them abroad.
Crypto Investment Scam Details
According to the Indian police, the victim, a doctor, was contacted via mobile applications WhatsApp and Telegram. He was lured by the suspect under the guise of making profits from digital assets. After several chats with the accused, he was then asked to deposit funds into a bank account that was provided.
Police claimed that upon investigation, they discovered that the funds were eventually transferred to an account managed by the accused.
After the victim discovered that he had been scammed, he alerted the Indian police, which moved swiftly into action. The police sent a special team, conducting searches in Ahmedabad and nearby areas, before successfully apprehending the suspect.
He was arraigned before the Thiruvananthapuram Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court (ACJM), where he pleaded his case. The Judge ordered that he be remanded in custody until investigations are finalized.
According to the Indian police, this is his third arrest in a similar case.
Digital Scams on the Rise in India
There has been an uptick in fraud cases across the country since the beginning of the year. Suspects have taken it up a notch, using artificial intelligence to alter videos, frightening victims into parting with their funds.
A similar case was reported this week when a senior citizen was coerced into transferring funds to criminals in what is described as a “digital arrest.”
The Indian police claimed that they threatened the elderly citizens with arrest in a fake case that they claimed was registered at the Colaba Police Station in Mumbai. The scammers even went ahead to show the victim a fake courtroom via video calls, telling him that he would be kept under surveillance because he is a senior citizen.
The Indian police claimed that the criminals kept him under surveillance and away from his family, exerting psychological pressure on him.
Acting on their instructions, the senior citizen was asked to transfer Rs. 28 lakh to an SBI account before being asked to transfer Rs. 24 lakh to another bank account in November. They claimed the payments were part of a verification process that they would use to help him avoid a jail term.
However, the fraud surfaced later that month after the man’s son discovered he had been kept under video surveillance by the criminals.
The family approached the Indian police and filed a report with the Cyber Crime Police. He claimed that the criminals constantly threatened and harassed him with arrests if he did not comply with their bidding. He has also initiated action to recover his funds from the criminals.
Meanwhile, the police said they are presently on the trail of the suspects and would update the general public. They also asked the public to be careful of these kinds of scams and report them to the police.