Bengaluru’s Central Crime Branch (CCB) recently put an end to a Ponzi crypto scam by arresting three individuals. The individuals running the scam were luring naïve investors to put in their money into cryptocurrencies by promising them significantly higher returns.
The three accused – Shivamurthy, Raghavendra, and Nagaraju – all live in Bengaluru’s well-known residential area HSR Layout. Sandip Patil, the Joint Commissioner of Police of the Central Crime Branch, said that the chain-link or the Ponzi scheme was detected by the branch’s economic offenses wing. The HSR Layout-based scam promised returns of over 20 per cent to investors. Additionally, investors were told that their returns would be even more if they managed to get more members to participate in the scheme.
The accused had started running the scam in the name of a firm called FOMOEX. The firm claimed to be operating out of a Yelahanka-based private hotel, and also made false claims of having offices in countries like China, Singapore, and the USA. The trio had developed a chain-link model that involves existing members earning more commissions based on the number of new members they could induct into the scheme.
For example, if an existing member got a new member to invest $100, the former would receive a commission percentage of 10%. After a thorough investigation into the scam, police found that this wasn’t the first time that the trio had duped investors. All three of them had previously run a similar chain-link scam.
All in all, it’s fair to say that this isn’t the last crypto scam we’ll hear of. Considering how popular crypto has become, similar scams are sure to be discovered and busted all around the world.
