Investors In India Have Been The Victims Of A Major Crypto Scam.

Cryptocurrency has become popular around the world, but its popularity cannot be interpreted as an increase in awareness about the same. In India, cryptocurrency has captured the imagination despite uncertainties over regulatory frameworks that continue to exist.

As popularity grew, so did scams and other fraudulent practices related to crypto. According to a report from Chainalysis , in 2021 Indian users visited many scam websites more than 9.6 million times. Chainalysis is a software platform that keeps tabs on criminal activities by tracking them

Among the most visited crypto scam sites are adbtc.top, coinpayu.com and dualmine.com.

These five websites had more than 4.6 million visits from India in the last month alone. Recently, The Kerala police along with other intelligence agencies have discovered yet another massive multi-crore crypto investment scam that was doing the rounds within Kerala, a state in India.

The Kerala police with the help of intelligence agencies have found out details of suspects in a multi-crore scam. Scamsters duped investors by promising high returns on their investments. These group of suspects reached out to potential investors by telling them that they are associated with companies that are from the crypto industry.

After getting hold of the funds, they directed money via two companies that are supposedly based out of Kochi. ‘Richferryman’ and ‘DealFX’ have reportedly scammed investors.

The Perumbavoor police received a complaint from an investor who lost close to Rs 25 lakh ($31,000) in a scam involving investment in gold. The police conducted a preliminary inquiry into the matter and subsequently registered a case against K.K. Vinod, a resident of Mudavoor town in Kerala. Further investigation revealed that Vinod and his associates had lured investors into investing money by promising them high yields from gold mining projects across the state.

The police have further investigated the case and found out that some investors even gave the accused gold ornaments. At the moment, they are focusing on getting hold of details of ‘Richferryman’ — a firm that was found to be registered in September 2021 with directors K K Vinod and Reji Vinod.

K K Vinod has sought an anticipatory bail as he mentioned to the court that he has been falsely implicated; however, this plea was rejected by the session court.

An Intelligence Officer told The Indian Express that many people attended these get-togethers and invested lakhs. The preliminary details show that the accused had duped many people in Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts. We are verifying the total amount collected by the accused which may come to around Rs 50 crore. ED raided several places in Kerala along with other states this year, discovering a scam worth 1,200 crore ($1,513,428,000) which is referred to as the Morris coin crypto scam.