Over 1,000 Himachal Pradesh cops fell victim to cryptocurrency fraud, some quit jobs to promote it

SHIMLA: Over a thousand police personnel fell victim to a fake local cryptocurrency created by fraudsters in Himachal’s Mandi district, an official said on Thursday.

A majority of the police personnel who invested in the fake cryptocurrency were duped of crores of rupees, but some of them made huge gains, became promoters of the scheme, and roped in more investors for it, according to investigators of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to probe the scam.

According to police, at least one lakh people have been duped by the fraudsters in the cryptocurrency fraud, and 2.5 lakh IDs have been found which included multiple IDs of the same person.

To get investors, the scammers launched two cryptocurrencies ‘Korvio Coin’ (or KRO) and DGT Coin’ and created fake websites with manipulated prices of these digital currencies. They lured the initial investors by promising them high returns in a short span of time. They also created a network of investors, who further expanded the chain within their own circles.Although a majority of the police personnel involved suffered losses, their promotion of the scheme created trust among the investors and gave credibility to the investment plan. Some policemen involved in the cryptocurrency scheme opted for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), and became its promoters, a police official said on Thursday on the condition of anonymity.

“We will get all the wrongdoers The investigation is progressing in an organised and planned manner,” DGP Sanjay Kundu said. He added that all those involved in the scam will be dealt with strongly as per law. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a blockchain-based computer network that is not dependent on any central authority, such as the government or bank to uphold or maintain it.