Bengaluru lecturer defrauded of Rs 10 lakh by man who offered him help in cyptocurrency trading

A complaint has been lodged at the Central CEN police station in the city, police said.

Reading out the order, Justice Subhashish Talapatra said, “This court cannot shut its eyes to the right of the petitioner. The action which curtails or takes away the personal liberty has to be reasonable and proportionate and has to be considered not in the abstract or hypothetical considerations.”

A private college lecturer from Bengaluru was allegedly defrauded of Rs 10 lakh by a man who promised to help him invest in crptocurrency. A complaint has been lodged at the Central CEN police station in the city, police said.

According to police officials, the 38-year-old victim said the incident took place on February 22 after he tried to log in to a trading platform to invest in cryptocurrency. “As he was unaware of how to handle cryptocurrency, he had visited certain groups on Telegram, where discussions on the same took place. As he (the victim) had doubts regarding how to use CoinSwitch Kuber, the trading platform, the hacker approached him promising to help in handling bitcoins to ensure high returns,” the police said.

After unsuccessfully trying to add Rs 90,000 to his trading account, the victim raised a query on a Telegram group when the alleged hacker sought his credentials, including a one-time password (OTP), and transferred bitcoin worth Rs 10 lakh to another wallet.

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The Central CEN police also registered a case under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC) based on the complaint filed by the victim, a resident of Palace Gutahalli.

“We are exploring options on how to conduct the investigation. To begin with, we will approach CoinSwitch Kuber as there are no other regulators that can be communicated to take this forward,” the officer added.

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In response to the incident, CoinSwitch Kuber said in a statement: “It is unfortunate that one of our users has been subjected to fraud by a third party. We will cooperate with the investigating authorities and provide them all possible assistance. We request all our users to be extremely careful in handling their OTPs and account details.

“CoinSwitch Kuber credentials are as sacrosanct as one’s bank credentials, and hence, they must not be shared with any third party. Users must also note that CoinSwitch Kuber and its representatives will never request for their login credentials,” the company added.

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As of Wednesday, one bitcoin is worth Rs 40.23 lakh as per data provided by Coinbase Inc.

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