A 22-year-old man from Ahmedabad’s Krishnanagar has been duped of ₹16 lakhs, approximately $18k, while attempting to purchase USDT in a peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction.
According to a report by the Times of India, Man Patel, the victim, is a crypto and forex trader who works from home. According to him, the scammer, Jay Patel, first lured him into the deal by processing a small payment of 328 USDT for ₹30,000 using a QR code. Within a couple of minutes, the USDT was also credited to his account.
Man was encouraged by this and sent ₹12.01 lakh through RTGS under an account linked to an export company, hoping to get more USDT. But the promised cryptocurrency never showed up.
On enquiring, Jay Patel first said there were problems with the server and then followed up with a request for an extra ₹3 lakh stating the amount variation was too high. After making this additional payment, Jay Patel stopped responding to him.
Following this, Man talked to his cousin who confirmed that he had been scammed. The victim then called the cyber helpline and registered a formal complaint with the Krishnanagar police.
As of now, Jay Patel has been charged with cheating and breaking trust under the IT Act.
Rising crypto scams in India
This case is an addition to a recent surge in crypto-related crimes in India. Last month, India’s IT Department unveiled a fraudulent crypto scheme in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The scheme involved identity theft, where the fraudsters used the identities of unsuspecting ordinary citizens to carry out heavy crypto trading activities.
Prior to that, the Enforcement Directorate carried out investigations across multiple cities in India in August, including Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, and Dehradun, in connection with a ₹260 crore global cryptocurrency scam.
India’s stance on crypto
India meanwhile continues to have stringent rules about how to report crypto. This acts as a setback, and the industry has to battle problems like high taxes and not having a clear set of rules to follow.
Because of the rise in crypto cybercrimes, the Indian government has made it mandatory for cryptocurrency exchanges, custodians, and other middlemen to have cybersecurity audits. However, the Indian government is still silent about the long-awaited policy paper for cryptocurrencies, which was first due in June and then July. There has been no mention of crypto in speeches about the budget or in bills about money so far. As the institutional and government level adoption of crypto continues to rise worldwide, industry insiders are awaiting India’s formal stance on this sector.