In a case of crypto fraud, the cybercrime wing of Pune City police has launched an investigation into the complaint of a software engineer who lost over Rs 13 lakh after he was allegedly made to invest in TRX cryptocurrency by suspects with whom he came into contact through a Telegram group, the police said. The investigators suspect the racket could have defrauded several people under the pretext of getting high returns on the investment into cryptocurrency.
A First Information Report (FIR) in the case was registered at the cyber crime police station of Pune police Tuesday.
According to the FIR, the 30-year-old engineer who works for a multinational company in Pune was added to a 1,600-member Telegram group concerned with crypto trading in October last year. The text chains on the group suggested that some of the members were getting high returns and were encouraging other members to invest in a TRX cryptocurrency trading scheme.
The police said that the complainant was made to transfer around 2.6 lakh TRX (equivalent to around 13.5 lakh) to two different wallets of the suspects, but did not get the returns even after a long wait. He approached the police as the persons he had been in contact with went incommunicado.
“The probe suggests that there were around 1,600 members in the Telegram group. Starting with the complainant’s case, we are investigating the possibility of a racket in which many people could have been cheated on the pretext of investment in cryptocurrency. We are working on some key technical leads.” said an officer from the cyber crime police station.
