HYDERABAD: Hyderabad cybercrime police have arrested a 21-year-old Mumbai resident for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of online trading and siphoning off money through cryptocurrency transactions.
The accused was identified as Ansari Mohammed Umar Murad alias Umar. Police said he was in direct contact with Chinese nationals and regularly communicated with them through Telegram. Two other accused — Rishi Thushar Arothe alias Vikranth and Inamdar Vinayaka Rajendar alias Nikhil, both natives of Gujarat — were arrested earlier in the case.
According to the police, Umar had sound knowledge of cryptocurrency trading. Acting on the instructions of a Chinese national, he, along with Vikranth, converted Indian rupees into USDT and transferred the cryptocurrency to wallet addresses provided by the foreign handler. Around `50 lakh was allegedly converted and transferred through their wallet IDs and crypto dealers.
Nikhil allegedly provided two of his bank accounts to the fraudsters on a commission basis and procured four more accounts from his associates for use in fraudulent transactions. The accused are suspected of having been involved in 12 similar cases across the country.
The arrests were made in connection with a case in which a victim lost `32 lakh. Police said the victim had come across a fraudulent social media advertisement posing as one from the Aditya Birla Group. After clicking the link, he was redirected to WhatsApp and added to a group where a woman identifying herself as Aiyana Joseph claimed to be a trade advisor. She allegedly persuaded him to invest and shared a link to download a trading application. After he invested the amount, the app stopped functioning on January 23, prompting him to approach the police.
