Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The cyber fraudsters are converting the siphoned off money into cryptocurrency. Senior officials of the district cyber crime cell said that the money, after being converted into cryptocurrency and even dollars, is transferred to banks based in China.
According to cyber cell officials, money is converted into cryptocurrency through android applications, which are miles away from the scanner of banks. The amount deposited in China’s banks does not remain in crypto form after certain duration. This makes it difficult to trace the duped amount.
The modus operandi was revealed two days back when a sales manager employed in a private firm in Bhopal was duped of Rs 39 lakh by online fraudsters. Victim Praveen Sharma was approached by a fraudster on the messaging application Telegram who offered him Rs 2 lakh for completing some paper work. Sharma received the amount in his account, after which the fraudster demanded a sum of Rs 3 lakh from him in the name of processing fee.
He transferred Rs 3 lakh to the fraudster’s account, after which the fraudster told him to download an android application on his device and register himself.
No sooner did Sharma did it, Rs 39 lakh were siphoned off from his bank account. He then lodged a complaint at the cyber crime cell, after which officials swung into action and discovered the new ways of deceit.
Coinswitch and Coindcx go
According to additional deputy commissioner of police (crime) Shailendra Singh Chouhan, fraudsters use crypto-exchange applications like Coinswitch and Coindcx go to convert the money into cryptocurrency. He added that with the helpof advanced equipment at district cyber crime cell, phone of the accused was tracked where it came to light that he transferred the amount to his crypto account on Coinswitch app and sent it to China.
Cyber fraudster booked for siphoning off Rs 92k from woman’s account
The Katara Hills police registered a case on Friday against a man for siphoning off Rs 92,000 from a woman’s bank account in March 2022.
Station house officer (SHO) of Katara Hills police station BS Prajapati said that the complainant Manju Tiwari (53), a housewife, approached cyber cell in March 2022, stating that she owned an account at a private bank and her netbanking facilities were not active, regarding which she had contacted the bank too.
On March 6, 2022, she received a call from an unknown number. The person on the other side of the phone identified himself as the employee of the very bank where Tiwari owned an account. He claimed that he would resume the netbanking facility and sought her card details, which included card number, date of expiry and CVV.
As soon as Tiwari shared the details with her, Rs 92,000 were debited from her account. When Tiwari tried contacting the number from which she had received the call, it was switched off.
Realising that she had been duped, Tiwari approached police and lodged a complaint against the unidentified accused.
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