A dentist based in Chandigarh recently lost Rs.81 lakh in a crypto related scam, the police said. According to reports, a Chinese woman lured the dentist into investing into a Chinese cryptocurrency by promising a return of three times the amount he invested.
The pig butchering scam is called so because scammers attract and lure their potential victims by promising wealth and riches and end up taking away their money and leaving them stranded.
According to the National Cyber Crime Wing, that many of these types of scams’ origins can be traced back to China. Many of these scams have been so popular and successful that they have made their way worldwide. According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), over $600 billion USD is lost due to various cyber crimes around the world each year. This accounts to just over 1% of the world GDP.
The victim whose name is Mr. Abhishek Pal is a dentist whose practice is based in Chandigarh. On Sunday morning, the man filed a complaint with the Kotwali police station in the Rajandgown district. The police then registered the case under Section 420 and Section 406, 66, and 66D. All these sections pertain to cheating, unlawful breach of confidence, cyber offences and cheating by personating respectively. The police have teamed up with the cyber crime branch immediately commenced their investigation.
According to Mr. Pal and the police the scammer has been identified as Ms. Anna Li who is based out of Hong Kong, an administrative island, legally part of the Chinese mainland. Anna Li met Mr. Pal and became close with him online and convinced him to put his money into a Chinese crypto currency and later transfer the purchased crypto into a MetaTrader5 account. She later blocked Mr. Pal’s access into the account even though the money was his and he hasn’t been able to get into it ever since.
Ever since the boom of crypto currencies and NFTs, scammers around the world have evolved and have taken into the new space quite well. Unfortunately, police forces around the world are yet to make the transition into this space as smoothly as the scammers. Due to this, people need to be very aware of where they put their money especially now that investing in crypto currencies is legal in India.
The police have said that they are very close in cracking the case wide open once they find out her IP address and binance history.