Delhi Police arrests six for duping man of Rs 10 lakh in cryptocurrency scam

New Delhi: Six cyber fraudsters, including the mastermind of an organised syndicate involved in cryptocurrency trading, were arrested for allegedly duping a man of Rs 10 lakh, Delhi Police said on Tuesday.

Police said that the key accused, Himanshu Baisoya (23), a BCA graduate from Kotla Mubarakpur in Delhi, orchestrated the scam by operating multiple fraudulent bank accounts, withdrawing cash and purchasing Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar, through local dealers at a margin.

Baisoya, along with his accomplices, created a fake crypto trading platform and lured victims via social media by promising high returns for investments.

"The scam came to light after a man alleged that he was cheated of Rs 10 lakh," Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ankit Chauhan said.

The complainant was lured into investing in cryptocurrency trading via a mobile application, he said.

"The victim was shown fake profits on a fabricated dashboard. However, when he attempted to withdraw his funds, the fraudsters demanded a 30 per cent handling fee in advance," the DCP said, adding that this made the man suspicious and he lodged the complaint at South cyber police station.

Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered and multiple teams were constituted to investigate the case, Chauhan said.

During the probe, the team first apprehended Garima (38), a housewife from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, who had provided her bank account credentials to co-accused Alok Singh for Rs 1,000.

"Garima was bound down in the case and her interrogation led police to Alok Singh and Avinash Verma, both residents of Uttar Pradesh who were arrested from Mirzapur," DCP Chauhan said.

Singh and Verma arranged bank accounts in the names of villagers for nominal amounts and sold them to Baisoya for Rs 15,000 per account. They also arranged SIM cards for operating these accounts, helping Baisoya route the money he collected by duping investors, the officer said.

He said police also nabbed Baisoya from Delhi and placed him under police custody. He confessed to withdrawing cash from ATMs and converting it into USDT via two crypto traders, Simranjeet Singh alias Lavi and Kamal Insan alias Kamal Awana, both residents of Badarpur in Delhi.

"Singh (28), also a BCA graduate, had introduced Baisoya to Kamal Insan (29), an interior designer who was actively trading USDT (Tether) on margin. The duo received the cash amounts and provided cryptocurrency in return, which was then transferred further by Baisoya to unknown contacts through an encrypted messaging platform," the DCP said.

Police said they recovered five mobile phones, one laptop and four bank passbooks from the accused, all allegedly used in the commission of the fraud.

During interrogation of the accused, police found that they generated fake dashboards to show inflated profits to make the investors believe that their investments were multiplying, the DCP said.

The accused used to communicate using encrypted messaging apps and took advantage of the anonymity. The investigation is ongoing and police are identifying other victims and members of the syndicate, the officer said.