Indian investors have plunged into the cryptocurrency market but also falling prey to fake wallet scams. There has been a surge in the number of investors in one of the most populated country in the world after the Supreme Court overturned a ban imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on cryptocurrency payments in March.
The CEO and founder of Avalance Global Solutions told news agency IANS that a lot of Indians are falling prey to fake cryptocurrency wallets in the recent past. Citing an example, he said that a gentleman lost Rs. 37 lakh at a go.
“I have seen so many wealthy Indian falling into the trap of such fake cryptocurrency wallets in the recent past. One gentleman just came to me who lost $50,000 (over Rs 37 lakh) while dealing with one such fake platform,” Manan Shah, Founder and CEO, Avalance Global Solutions, told IANS.
Shah also mentioned that another businessman lost a massive Rs. 28 crore in similar scam. In India, a Bitcoin costs around Rs. 8 lakh and Indians have emptied their pockets and investing largely in it.
The fake Bitcoin wallets operate in very simple manner. It usually targets people via sending them messages on various social media groups, asking them to sell and buy Bitcoin via their apps.
In this way they trick them to buy Bitcoin and offer them trade opportunities with other app users across the world.
Shah also said that these kind of transactions mostly take place on Swift Global Pay (SGP), Insta Global Pay (IGP) and International Global Pay wallets.
“I do not see any genuinity in this wallet. I purchased virtual cards by paying Rs 3.70 kakh on SGP. It was delivered online on 15th July. Till now it is not accepted anywhere online. SGP site chat no response,” posted a user that goes with the name Kumar Chvks, Managing Director with an Indian firm.
“Email no response. So only the figures are shown on Dashboard. I tried to withdraw my money in the BTC PayPal and bank. None came till now. It is clear cheating. Expected to be a scam of 7000 Cr to my estimation,” he further posted.
