Hyderabad: In a recent case of bitcoin investment fraud, cybercriminals duped a city-based software engineer out of Rupees 5.8 lakh.
According to Rachakonda cyber crime officials, the 40-year-old man stated that on September 13 he joined an unidentified Telegram group called “Fastcoin Mining” that purported to be interested in cryptocurrency investments. After seeing the gains achieved by other users, he contacted the Telegram group identified only as Brian McCauley (ID: @Braiely), who pretended to be a crypto analyst and provided details on the investments.
The victim registered at https://fastcoinmining.net purchased USDT cryptocurrency through an app on Brian’s advice and then transferred the funds to the eWallet Brian recommended.
The victim made an investment of 2,140 USDT between September 14 and September 16 and received 2,874 USDT in return.
Encouraged by the gains, the victim made a second investment of 7,000 USDT, or Rs 5.8 lakh. But when he asked Brian to pay the earnings on September 21, he was told he needed to invest an additional 1,500 USDT in order to get the money. The victim filed a police report shortly after Brian stopped replying to messages.
Rachakonda cyber crime police have registered a case and an investigation is being carried out based on the complaint of the victim.
