Mumbai: Rs 2 lakh bitcoin scam uncovers Rs 200 crore trail of cyber cheats | Mumbai News
MUMBAI: In a new modus operandi in cyber-crime, a group of cyber fraudsters cheated a music teacher after promising high returns by investing in bitcoin mining. The police arrested a 31-year-old Karnataka resident and during investigations found the gangs financial transactions of over Rs 200 crore in 11 bank accounts belonging to the accused gang. Transactions of Rs 189 crore, were done from only one account since October, have been found.
The complainant, had lodged a complaint with the Matunga police station for cheating. On August 12 last year, the complainant had received a text message on his phone which asked him to invest in bitcoin mining. He was promised a daily return on the investment. The teacher downloaded an app, given in a link in the text massage and invested an initial amount of Rs 2,000. He told the police that the next day, Rs 50 as profit was deposited into his account. Police said that during this period, he received WhatsApp calls from various mobile numbers. One caller, Arav Khanna, a sked him to invest a big sum for high profit. The profit continued crediting into his a ccoun t and the teacher later deposited a total of over Rs 2. 47 lakh in the app for bit- coin mining. More than 240 persons in India are suspected to have been cheated.
During this time, the a ccused formed a WhatsApp group and added over 200 investors in the group. A few days later, the app was removed from Play Store due to ‘technical reasons’ and the WhatsApp grou p was also deleted by the accused.
All attempts to contact the callers or get his money back went in vain. This is when the complainant realised he was cheated. Under the supervision of Zonal DCP Vijay Patil, ateam led by senior inspector Deepak Chavan worked on the case. They went to Bengaluru and tailed the accused near a bank and scanning CCTV footage. On Friday arrested Mohamm ed Jabir, a Bengaluru resident. PSI Rajabhau Garad and colleagues recovered a bank passbook, three debit cards and a mobile phone from him. Police found that the operators of the n umbers, were using Dubai-based IP addresses. The accused had also used fake IP addresses of China and Singapore.
Financial transactions of over Rs 200 crore have been found in differ ent bank accounts in the crime, said police “We have found a bank account from where Rs 70 lakh was withdrawn sometime back. We are searching for other accused members,” said Garad.
The complainant, had lodged a complaint with the Matunga police station for cheating. On August 12 last year, the complainant had received a text message on his phone which asked him to invest in bitcoin mining. He was promised a daily return on the investment. The teacher downloaded an app, given in a link in the text massage and invested an initial amount of Rs 2,000. He told the police that the next day, Rs 50 as profit was deposited into his account. Police said that during this period, he received WhatsApp calls from various mobile numbers. One caller, Arav Khanna, a sked him to invest a big sum for high profit. The profit continued crediting into his a ccoun t and the teacher later deposited a total of over Rs 2. 47 lakh in the app for bit- coin mining. More than 240 persons in India are suspected to have been cheated.
During this time, the a ccused formed a WhatsApp group and added over 200 investors in the group. A few days later, the app was removed from Play Store due to ‘technical reasons’ and the WhatsApp grou p was also deleted by the accused.
All attempts to contact the callers or get his money back went in vain. This is when the complainant realised he was cheated. Under the supervision of Zonal DCP Vijay Patil, ateam led by senior inspector Deepak Chavan worked on the case. They went to Bengaluru and tailed the accused near a bank and scanning CCTV footage. On Friday arrested Mohamm ed Jabir, a Bengaluru resident. PSI Rajabhau Garad and colleagues recovered a bank passbook, three debit cards and a mobile phone from him. Police found that the operators of the n umbers, were using Dubai-based IP addresses. The accused had also used fake IP addresses of China and Singapore.
Financial transactions of over Rs 200 crore have been found in differ ent bank accounts in the crime, said police “We have found a bank account from where Rs 70 lakh was withdrawn sometime back. We are searching for other accused members,” said Garad.