A Bengaluru-based 38-year-old professor new to the cryptocurrency world lost Rs 10 lakh in bitcoins to a scammer, who assured to manage his cryptocurrency account. This Palace Gutahalli resident and a private university lecturer brought a complaint on Saturday to the Central CEN Police. The incident took place on 22 February, after attempting to register to a cryptocurrency trading platform, as per the complainant.
“As he was unaware of how to handle cryptocurrency, he had visited certain groups on Telegram, where discussions on the same took place. As he (the victim) had doubts regarding how to use CoinSwitch Kuber, the trading platform, the hacker approached him promising to help in handling bitcoins to ensure high returns,” the police said. CoinSwitch Kuber is a simple and safe platform for Indian users, which allows them to purchase more than 100 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, etc.
The victim posted a query on a Telegram group following failure to effectively add Rs 90,000 to his account. He also registered into a couple of crypto-currency rooms of the mobile app, Telegram – to understand the trade process and share their views. Later a scammer told the victim himself that he could manage the bitcoins that the latter purchased and make high returns from it. The alleged scammer pursued his credentials, including a one-time password (OTP), and then the Bitcoins worth Rs 10 lakh were transferred from the wallet of the victim to some other wallet in the following few minutes.
In response to a complaint from the victim, a case was also registered by the Central CEN police, in compliance with the appropriate sections of the Information Technology and Indian Penal Code (IPC). A senior police officer said that this is their first-of-a-kind case and that they are examining how they want to verify.
“We are exploring options on how to conduct the investigation. To begin with, we will approach CoinSwitch Kuber as there are no other regulators that can be communicated to take this forward,” the officer added.
In response to the incident, CoinSwitch Kuber said in a statement: “It is unfortunate that one of our users has been subjected to fraud by a third party. We will cooperate with the investigating authorities and provide them all possible assistance. We request all our users to be extremely careful in handling their OTPs and account details.”
Further, the company warned its users by stating that, the credentials are just as sacrosanct as the credentials of one's bank and therefore it should not be shared with any third party. Customers also need to note that CoinSwitch Kuber and its staff never demand for their login credentials.