Three dupe woman of Rs 7.8 lakh on pretext of crypto investment, held

New Delhi, May 24

Three men were arrested for allegedly duping people of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of investing in cryptocurrency, the police said on Wednesday. The accused were identified as Pushkar Jat (22), Vishal Tank (21) and Nitesh Mali (20), they said.

According to the police, the matter came to light in April after a complaint was filed by a resident of Mayur Vihar who alleged that she was cheated on the pretext of investing money in cryptocurrency. She was, instead, duped of Rs 7.80 lakh by a group of cheaters active on Telegram.

Initially, she received a message on WhatsApp regarding work from home and was given a task to post reviews on Google for different hotels and was paid some money to gain her trust. Later, she was asked to join Telegram and invest money in cryptocurrency through an APK android application.

She got suspicious when they blocked her account on Telegram and she was unable to withdraw the invested money, the police said. DCP (East) Amrutha Gugloth said that during the investigation, it was found that the cheated money was transferred into 8-10 different bank accounts in Haryana, Noida, Maharashtra and other parts of the country.

Information was procured regarding the alleged bank accounts in which partial cheated amount of Rs 2.23 lakh was transferred by the complainant. On the basis of technical evidence and surveillance, a raid was conducted in Akola, Chittorgarh, in Rajasthan and the three accused were arrested in the case, she said.

“During the interrogation, it was revealed that these people were also selling bank accounts after activating net-banking and UPIs to foreign nationals from China, Indonesia, Nepal and other countries and receiving huge amount in exchange of these,” she added. Mobile phones containing bank account details used in cheating, bank account kits and SIM cards were recovered, police said, adding further probe is underway.