The three people arrested by the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Sunday for a bitcoin-related fraud case have revealed the names of 23 other people who were also involved.
According to a report by the Times of India, the trio – Rakesh Kumar Singh, Bittu Yadav, and Pradeep Deo from Chinhat – are part of a Pan-Indian gang that is involved in duping people on the pretext of providing them with employment overseas.
On Monday, they reportedly revealed the names of three bitcoin vendors, three scammers who are currently changing their positions, and seventeen pickers through whom the transactions were made.
The Additional Superintendent of Police STF, Satyasen Yadav stated that among the seventeen pickers, six are based in Uttar Pradesh, four are in Delhi, two are in Haryana, two are in Rajasthan, and three are in Maharashtra. The three scammers and three bitcoin vendors are operating from Delhi.
How the Bitcoin Fraud Worked
As per the report, the gang enticed people by assuring them of jobs overseas collected payments in Bitcoin and then never returns the money or the jobs they promised. The group consisted of a fraudster, a Bitcoin vendor for payment conversions, and a picker.
The three people arrested further disclosed that to join the gang, they had to submit their curriculum vitae (CV) to the group for approval online. Once it was approved, they had to undergo a speech and English writing test since they had to deal with candidates applying for jobs overseas.
Those that completed the test were further trained at British Council centers before being admitted into the gang.
Notably, the report did not reveal the amount of money the gang collected from their victims, with investigations still ongoing.
In a similar crime development, Coinfomania reported in May that Thai Police arrested a self-named “cryptocurrency wizard,” who masterminded a $16 million crypto-related scam.
