Mumbai man duped of Rs 1.57 cr in cryptocurrency mining fraud: Report

The victim, a 36-year-old man, became friends with the accused over the internet in October 2020, according to police, reported HT.

He was lured by the accused to invest in machinery for mining cryptocurrency through the website ‘USD Miner.'"

The accused also informed him about multiple schemes, telling him that he could make huge profits through these investments.

"Since October 2021 the complainant invested 2.83 lakh Australian dollars (equivalent to Rs1.53 crore),” said a police officer, stated the report.

The complainant kept investing more and more as he was seeing profit getting credited to his virtual wallet.

However, whenever he tried to withdraw from the wallet, the accused would discourage him in order to prolong the fraud.

Early this month, the complainant sensed some foul play as the accused dissuaded him whenever he insisted on withdrawing from his wallet.

He then asked the accused for a full refund of his money but thereafter found the accused had switched off his phone.

After making an inquiry about the website, the complainant learned that it was a fake one. He lodged a complaint at the Malabar Hill police station.

Acting on his complaint, we have registered an FIR on Thursday against an unidentified person under relevant sections of IPC and IT Act, inspector Mangesh Mohod of Malabar Hill police station was quoted as saying in the HT report.

Police have written to the service provider and concerned bank, seeking more details of the bogus website and the beneficiary bank accounts in which fraudulently obtained money was transferred, the report stated.