Crypto theft! Delhi woman robbed off ₹3 crore in bitcoins while phone was in flight mode

A woman lost ₹3 crore while her phone was on ‘flight mode’. Her close friend was arrested in connection with the matter. "Her close friend siphoned off 6 bitcoins (BTC) from her crypto mobile wallet with the help of two associates," the police were quoted by the Indian Express as saying.

One of the accused is a resident of Uttam Nagar in Delhi. Her two associates committed fraud from the complainant’s crypto account by using multiple ‘tumblers’ to avoid the money trail of coins. A tumbler is mainly used to mix identifiable cryptocurrency with others to hide its source.

Police said initially investigation revealed that bitcoins were transferred to six different wallets. They were quoted by the Indian Express as saying that on July 4, the accused woman accompanied her friend to the airport.

"On the way, she took the complainant’s phone on the pretext of using the map for navigation and transferred the whole balance of six bitcoins from her wallet to multiple other wallets while mixing using a tumble," she reportedly said.

As per the report, the accused converted some crypto to cash using different accounts after transferring the whole amount.

The victim, who is a digital marketer, filed a complaint after she found that the BTCs from her crypto wallet were missing on July 4.

Police arrested the accused on July 19. They recovered cash worth ₹1.25 crore, 2.32 BTC, 96000 USDT and three mobile phones were from the three accused, police said.

Police registered a case against the accused and her aides under sections 303(2) for theft, 323 for concealment of property, 61(2) for criminal conspiracy, 3(5) for joint criminal liability and 317(2) for stolen property of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) along with Section 66 of the IT Act.

On July 21, Delhi polic arrested seven people, including a contractual bank employee, for allegedly cheating a man of ₹91 lakh on the pretext of higher returns in stocks and crypto trading.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Hemant Tiwari of the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police said that a man filed a complaint of being cheated of ₹91 lakh on the pretext of receiving higher returns in stocks and crypto trading.

"The complainant was added to a messaging group where perpetrators were giving stock recommendations. Upon persuasion of cyber crooks, the complainant opened an account on a website and transferred ₹91 lakh in 19 different accounts," the DCP said.