In a significant crackdown on digital financial crime, the cyber police station of Jaipur city police successfully arrested two individuals on Saturday for orchestrating a cryptocurrency scam. The police managed to recover almost the entire amount lost by the victim, marking a notable achievement in tackling complex cyber fraud.
How the Crypto Scam Was Executed
The accused have been identified as Murari Lal Saini and Ravi Kumar Meena. According to officials, they targeted individuals interested in cryptocurrency trading by posing as legitimate buyers and sellers on online platforms. The victim in this case was cheated out of approximately 10,000 USDT (Tether), a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. At the time of the fraud, this amount was valued at around Rs 9 lakh.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Abhijeet Singh detailed the modus operandi. The fraudsters used fake SIM cards and WhatsApp accounts to establish communication. To build trust, they first transferred a small sum of 3 USDT as a test transaction. Once confidence was established, they persuaded the victim, who was trading on the global platform Binance after completing KYC verification, to move all his crypto holdings to a private Trust Wallet. Immediately after the transfer, the entire amount was siphoned off to another wallet, leaving the victim locked out of his assets.
The Technical Investigation and Swift Recovery
Following the complaint, Jaipur cyber teams launched an intensive technical investigation. DCP Singh stated that based on digital location tracking, teams were dispatched outside Jaipur, leading to the arrest of the accused within just two days.
The investigation faced a hurdle when the accused destroyed several devices and claimed they no longer had access to the crypto wallets. However, cyber experts persisted and were able to trace the digital access codes. The stolen cryptocurrency, totaling 9,991 USDT (Rs 8.96 lakh), was recovered and seized from the Trust Wallet stored on the mobile phones of the accused.
A Landmark Case for Crypto Fraud Victims
This case is being hailed as one of the first in Jaipur where recovered cryptocurrency is set to be returned to the victim after obtaining necessary court approvals. Typically, such assets remain frozen as evidence for years, causing further distress to the complainant.
The near-complete recovery of the funds and the swift arrest underscore the growing capability of the Jaipur police in investigating and resolving sophisticated cryptocurrency-related crimes. It serves as a strong warning to fraudsters operating in the digital asset space and offers hope to victims of similar scams.
