Acting on the inputs from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) USA, the Central Bureau of Investigation has booked an Ahmedabad resident for allegedly misappropriating $130,000 by duping an American citizen.
Following the searches on the premises of the accused in Ahmedabad, the CBI busted a crypto fraud worth $9.3 lakh.
According to the CBI, the accused- Ramavat Shaishav – allegedly contacted a US citizen over the phone under the pseudonym ‘James Carlson’, introduced himself as an official from a fraud department of a multinational company (MNC), and informed the victim that someone had been trying to order a computer using the account of the victim with the MNC.
Shaishav then allegedly misguided the victim telling him that people in four different states had used the social security number of the victim to open accounts of the said MNC, the CBI stated.
The CBI’s statement noted that the accused induced the victim to withdraw cash from his bank accounts and deposit the same in Bitcoin at Rockit Coin ATM wallet and shared a QR code, while falsely claiming that the Bitcoin account had been opened by the US Treasury for the victim.
A fake letter dated September 20, 2022, purportedly issued by the Federal Trade Commission of the USA was also sent to this effect to gain the victim’s trust, the CBI stated. Pursuant to this, the victim then allegedly withdrew an amount of $130,000 from his bank accounts on different dates between August 30, 2022, and September 9, 2022, and deposited the same in the Bitcoin address provided by the accused.
Searches by the CBI have led to the recovery of various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, USDT, etc, worth approximately $930,000 from the crypto wallets of the accused.
CBI detected the involvement of two other Ahmedabad residents and searches at their premises have resulted in the recovery of mobile phones and laptops, allegedly containing incriminating materials.