Seven individuals nabbed for scamming over Rs three billion
KATHMANDU, Feb 1: The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police has uncovered an international racket involved in organized online financial scams and cryptocurrency fraud of over Rs 3 billion. This was revealed after the CIB arrested two individuals on charges of cryptocurrency fraud following a low-profile investigation.
Based on a special tip-off, a team of police officials deployed from the CIB initially arrested two individuals in late December for their involvement in an organized racket involved in trading and online scamming of illegal cryptocurrencies in Nepal. The team rounded up Michael Dagaura, 22, and Anil Bishwakarma, 26, in Kathmandu. Both of the accused are from Bardagoriya Rural Municipality-6 in Kailali.
The bureau seized two supercomputer CPUs, 13 mobile phones, 19 checks issued in the name of different individuals, and a cash amount of Rs 550,000.
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Spokesperson for the CIB Superintendent of Police (SP) Sudhir Raj Shahi informed Republica that further investigation into the case revealed the involvement of five more individuals in the case. The bureau arrested Piyush Shrestha, 21, of Budhanilkantha Municipality-8, Ashwin Chaulagai, 19, of Bhimeshwor Municipality-4, Satyam Kumar Sahani, 22, of Gaur Municipality-9, Roshan Kumar, 27, of Pratappatti Sahebgunj, Bihar, India and Munna Kumar, 36, of Purba Champas, Bihar, India at different stages of the investigation.
According to SP Shahi, the investigation has revealed that the various individuals deceived users of various banks and digital wallets by claiming to be the officials from bank and digital wallet companies and demanding their OTP/PIN to illegally access the banks and digital wallets, thus scamming them of money.
“We have found transactions worth over three billion in their bank accounts,” said SP Shahi, adding, “And their banks currently hold hundreds of millions of rupees.”
The bureau’s investigation revealed that the scammers have been using various social media including Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook to send attractive advertisements such as online jobs, prospects of earning a lot of money by sitting at home, online gambling through various links and using Cyber Phishing to access the users' banks and wallets and transfer their money to other accounts. They would then transfer the fraudulent amount to the banks and digital wallets of various individuals at various levels in a short time.
In addition to scamming the people by withdrawing their money, the racket has also been luring people through various social media through attractive advertisements and asking them to open accounts in various banks and digital wallets using their citizenship and phone numbers. “Then, they would use the account themselves and pay a certain amount for using it,” SP Shahi said, “They used such accounts to deposit money earned through online fraud, and trade of cryptocurrency, and even use it to facilitate hundi transactions.”
SP Shahi noted that although the group has been primarily defrauding Nepali people, their network seems to be extended beyond Nepal. “Nepali diaspora are tempted to send their hard-earned money to Nepal through non-banking channels to avoid taxes and fees,” he said, “They take money through agents of the group living abroad for hundi transactions.”
Another international connection of the group is associated with their cryptocurrency trade, whereby they trade cryptocurrency for their defrauded amount in an attempt to erase the digital trail of money. “Our investigation has also revealed that the scammer group deposited the scammed money in specified foreign accounts and received the cryptocurrency in exchange,” SP Shahi said.
