Cyberabad Cops Warn Against P2P Cryptocurrency Trading, Cite Rising Fraud

Hyderabad:
Cyberabad cybercrime police advised people to refrain from peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency trading, as they can fall prey to fraudsters. Police said cybercriminals were using P2P cryptotrading to evade the police. 
The fraudsters approach traders through communication channels like Telegram, and lure them invest funds, a legitimate trading activity, for a commission. The victims cannot verify the fraudster’s KYC and do not know the source of the funds, which could have criminal origins.

H. Sivanand, a cryptotrader and expert, explained: “Let us say ‘A’ is a cyber criminal, and he defrauds ‘B’ of `10 lakh. ‘A’ transfers the `10 lakh funds to ‘C’, a cryptotrader. ‘C’ retains a commission and transfers `9.5 lakh equivalent cryptocurrency to ‘A’. When the victim ‘B’ complains to the police, the system flags ‘C’, and freezes C’s bank accounts. The police end up taking the funds from C’s account and transfer it to A.”


“The direct victims in these situations are the investment fraud victims, but the indirect victims are the traders whom criminals are using as a medium to get the criminal funds,” he said.
Cyberabad cybercrimes inspector K. Srinivas said, “A majority of cyber fraudsters are from China, Cambodia, Thailand and Taiwan.”
“There were about 3,000 crimes reported in Cyberabad jurisdictions from January of 2024 to April of 2024, and around 50 per cent of these are investment frauds. The number of indirect victims, who are the crypto traders, is increasing at an alarming rate,” he said.
For any complaints related to cyber issues, police asked the victims to promptly contact 1930.

Cyberabad Cops Warn Against P2P Cryptocurrency Trading, Cite Rising Fraud