A 51-year-old man from Gandhidham, Gujarat, originally hailing from Pune, has lost ₹56.47 lakh in a complex cryptocurrency trading scam. The victim, Kishor Nargundkar, was invited to a scam group on Telegram set up by the scammers, where he lost the money after completing certain tasks.
According to a report by the Times of India, an individual named Deepa introduced the victim to the scam through Telegram and invited him to join a group called ‘Conforge Finance.’ At first, Nargundkar was told to invest small amounts of money with the promise of big returns. He was tricked into making 38 transactions between June 25 and September 8, which added up to ₹56.47 lakh, as he got more involved.
The scammers made up fake fees and penalties, such as a ₹10.65 lakh fine for not following trading rules and a ₹4 lakh tax for taking out profits. Even though his account showed a profit of ₹61 lakh, Nargundkar couldn’t get his money. The scammers asked for another ₹13 lakh to release the money, which made him realize he had been scammed and then he reported it to the Kutch East Cyber Crime police station.
Authorities are accusing individuals Deepa, Anubhav Goyal, and Ashutosh Kumar, as well as platforms Conforge Finance and Coinbase, of their involvement in the scam. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (Indian Penal Code) has sections that the authorities are using to look into the matter.
Rising crypto crimes across the globe
This event is just one more in a long line of cryptocurrency scams in India and around the world. Scammers take advantage of the promise of quick profits on unregulated online platforms and messaging apps.
Recently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided 15 places in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, and Mumbai as as part of a crackdown on a tech support scam. The criminals told their victims that their computers or bank accounts were at risk, and then they would demand money to resolve the problem.