India’s police have exposed a huge cryptocurrency scam that defrauded over 2000 people, resulting in losses of around 2.4 million dollars (20 crore rupees) in Assam, its north-eastern state.
Three men, Asad-ul Islam, Hashanur Zaman, and Kobad Ali Mollah, have been arrested for executing the fraudulent scheme called RSN crypto, according to local report.
These men defraud people from Assam and Meghalaya states by persuading them to purchase a crypto-based game with the assurance of high returns. They were told to invest a minimum of $610 (₹50,000). Many people were swindled by the scheme because they were hoping for rapid returns on their investments.
But after the scammers managed to gather huge sums of money, they fled, leaving the investors stranded behind. According to the police, the mastermind of the scam, Hekmot Ali Sarkar, is still at large.
The fraudsters collected money from the investors through popular Indian digital wallets such as Paytm and PhonePe. They exchanged the money to Tether (USDT), a stablecoin, and moved it to overseas accounts. Further investigation showed that the website of the scam was hosted on Amazon servers in China. The authorities suspect the operation had global connections.
Police confiscated eight mobile phones, eleven sim cards, and two laptops during the raid. A fraud ring was uncovered after the investigators found the fraudsters were renting back accounts to other criminals, making it harder for the authorities to trace the stolen funds.
Assam’s police have not made a statement in regard to how much of the stolen money was recovered, if any at all.
This is just one of many scams that are being investigated lately. As part of the investigation of the GainBitcoin scam, which cost an estimated 800 million dollars, the CBI conducted a raid of multiple places in India last month. Additionally, in another case, a managing director of Coin ZX, Ravi Mahaseth was arrested in Mumbai in connection with the 23 million dollar Bitcoin investment scam.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has also widened the scope of their investigations into crypto scams. Recently, officials took over assets of $190 million tied to the BitConnect Ponzi scheme. But even with their efforts, billions of dollars are lost due to fraudulent schemes.
Authorities are urging people to be cautious and avoid investing in schemes that promise guaranteed high returns. Assam police are continuing their investigation to track down Hekmot Ali Sarkar and recover the stolen funds.
Also Read: Woman from Hyderabad Loses INR 7.7 Million in Crypto Scam
