EOW Odisha issues caution against crypto trade

Bhubaneswar: During the investigation of EOW cases related to Online Ponzi Apps scam it was noticed that some ‘Indian Whatsapp numbers” operated from China are being used to lure the Indian Crypto

Traders are all set to sell the cryptocurrency worth hundreds of crores of rupees to the scammers sitting outside India.

These China based scammers usually offer higher/ lucrative rates (compared to market rates) to lure Indian crypto traders. These scammers generally meet them on various crypto exchange platforms and establish one to one link to make the deal.

However these scammers prefer P2P deal (Peer to Peer deal) instead of exchange based deal. Mostly crypto traders (who are interested in better deal) are not aware of the criminal/fraud antecedent of the other party.

Once the deal is struck, the scammers transfer the money from their India based shell companies/ enterprises’ bank account to crypto-traders and in turn Crypto-traders transfer the Crypto currencies to scammer’s account. Thus money is siphoned out of India.

The EOW Has Issued An Advisory to Crypto-Traders:

1. Crypto-traders must verify the antecedent of crypto buyers especially when the amount is huge.
2. Crypto traders must check the details of company to check whether it’s a genuine or shell company.
3. Generally these shell companies’ are newly created having very low authorized and paid
   up capitals.
4. If they are offered higher/ better rate then prevailing market rate, it should be seen
   suspiciously.
5. They should avoid P2P trade with suspicious buyers.
6. While chatting on WhatsApp they should insist on video chat so that they can see the
   person on other side.
7. In case of any suspicion, they should report the matter to police/112/1930.