Police arrest three for cryptocurrency fraud

Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police have apprehended three individuals involved in the theft of cryptocurrency funds amounting to 21,04,089 USDT through a malicious website. Those arrested include Sushim Shripati Gaikwad from Pune, Srikanth from Hyderabad who approached the victim to buy USDT, and Lucky Choudhary from Jaipur. Choudhary is accused of designing the impersonated KYC verification website trontag.org used in the heist.

The accused committed the crime in an organised manner and cheated many victims across India. A probe is currently underway to apprehend other absconding suspects. According to police reports, a 44-year-old victim from Hyderabad lodged a complaint stating that unknown persons approached him to purchase USDT. They claimed that to facilitate the sale, his Tron wallet address required KYC verification on the trontag.org platform.

Believing the instructions to be legitimate, the victim accessed the link and provided his information. Subsequently, 21,04,089 USDT was transferred from his Tron wallet to the wallet of the accused. Following the complaint, a case was registered under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Cyber Crime DCP V Aravind Babu explained that fraudsters directed victims to the fake website under the pretext of cryptocurrency trading. The website prompts the victim to connect their crypto wallet. By approving a simple transaction or verification, a malicious smart contract is enabled. This allows funds to be automatically transferred from the victim’s wallet to the accused without further authorisation. The Hyderabad Cyber Crime department advised citizens never to connect crypto wallets to unverified websites.