Hyderabad. Nearly 15,000 Indians, including high-paid software professionals, recently fell victim to a cryptowallet investment fraud of over Rs 700 crore perpetrated by Chinese operators. Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand gave this information on Monday. According to the officials, the victims were assigned simple tasks like liking YouTube videos or writing Google reviews and were paid upon completion.
The Hyderabad Police on Saturday announced the busting of a Rs 712 crore cryptowallet investment fraud by Chinese operators. In this connection, nine people have been arrested from different places of the country. Police said in their statement that some of the cryptocurrency transactions involved in the fraud were linked to the Hezbollah wallet, which is believed to be related to the Lebanese terror funding module.
Anand told NDTV that the state police is informing central agencies about the incident and all relevant details have been provided to the Cyber Crime Unit of the Union Home Ministry. He further said, ‘It is quite shocking and surprising that even the highly paid software professionals have suffered a loss of Rs 82 lakh.’
113 Indian bank accounts accessed
As per NDTV report, after probing the case, the officials initially found 48 bank accounts linked to the shell companies involved in the fraud. At that time the estimated cost of the scam was considered to be Rs 584 crore. However, as the investigation progressed, it was revealed that the scamsters siphoned off an additional Rs 128 crore and a total of 113 Indian bank accounts were used in the fraudulent activities.
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Tags: cyber crimes, Google, Hyderabad, Hyderabad police, youtube
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 24, 2023, 21:46 IST