Mohammad Daud, a 29-year-old man from Maujpur, Delhi, along with at least a dozen unidentified associates, was arrested for orchestrating a massive cryptocurrency scam.
Daud and his gang allegedly defrauded individuals of over ₹370 crore through a sophisticated scam that operated via social media platforms like Instagram and communication apps like Telegram. They posed as representatives of Binance, a well-known cryptocurrency exchange, to lure victims into their scheme.
The arrest occurred on Wednesday after a complaint was lodged in April by a 30-year-old woman who claimed she was cheated out of ₹23 lakh.
The scam was primarily conducted from northeast Delhi, with the suspects utilizing WiFi connections belonging to others across various locations like Delhi, Noida, Meerut, and Gurugram to avoid detection.
The suspects initially approached the victim through Telegram, enticing her with the prospect of high returns on investments in the cryptocurrency market. After a small initial successful transaction where the victim turned ₹1,000 into ₹1,300, she was persuaded to invest more. When her substantial investment was purportedly “blocked,” the suspects coerced her into depositing additional funds to “unblock” her money, leading her to borrow heavily. The scam came to light only after a bank official contacted the victim regarding the unusual transactions and informed her of the fraud.
Police investigations revealed the suspects used multiple bank accounts to collect funds from victims. They leveraged a local telecom company’s special plan that allowed them to anonymously connect to existing WiFi networks for a minimal fee, thus remaining untraceable. During the raid at Daud’s residence, police seized various devices used in the scam, including debit cards, chequebooks, and SIM cards. Daud’s interrogation uncovered that he had previously worked as a sales executive, and he, along with his associates, connected online and randomly used WiFi networks to execute their fraudulent activities. The police are still working to identify and apprehend the remaining members of the scam network.
