Cheats who promised high returns on fake crypto-currency held

NEW DELHI: The Cyber Crime Cell of Delhi Police Special Cell on Saturday said it has arrested the masterminds of a cheating scheme which claimed investors of high returns on Bitcoin investment.

The accused were identified as 37-year-old Deepak Jangra and 56-year-old Deepak Malhotra, both residents of Haryana's Sonipat district.

The duo ran a fake website, www.bitmineplus.org and falsely promised returns on the basis of Bitcoin mining and trading.

Around 5,000 investors with different IDs were found to have been duped by the accused, who claimed that their company was operated by a US-based company, police claimed.

Initially, returns to the tune of 12 per cent each month were offered to the unsuspecting victims by the cheats.

The fraudulent plan offered monthly payout and referral income for the persons investing in the scheme.

However, the scheme lasted for only a few months, before the bubble bust and investors started demanding their promised returns.

To placate the aggrieved investors, Jangra claimed to have introduced a new crypto-currency called 'BMP, and tried to divert the victims to invest in it. The scheme turned out to be successful for the cheats

The accused used multi-level marketing to run their cheating racket, i.e. promising referral incomes to new members and giving payouts from individual's investments.

The duo had even organised meetings and parties at various five star hotels in different parts of Delhi-NCR to give their cheating scheme credibility.

Several investors were attracted by the scheme, with the project starting to get popular from December 2016.

Anyesh Roy, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) said, "Initially, the investors got the due returns, which helped the accused to add new investors and led to multiple investments from the existing clients. After a few days, the illusion of returns by the company seized."

"The fact was that there was no mining or trading platform of the company. The whole scheme was to get investments with a pre-designed motive to cheat," he added.