Tamil Nadu: The Computer Crime Prevention Police on Tuesday arrested a man from Coimbatore for allegedly defrauding a person of Rs 4.49 lakh by promising to sell him cryptocurrency online.
Hariprabhu (28), a resident of Periyamalli in Namakkal district, was checking his Telegram ID on December 4 last year when he came across a USDT group. The group had a message advertising the urgent sale of 4,000 USDT (a stablecoin cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar). Believing the message, he contacted the associated mobile number. The person on the other end, who identified himself as Arun, claimed to have an office in Singanallur, Coimbatore, and promised to send the cryptocurrency coins if Hariprabhu transferred the money.
Following this, Hariprabhu transferred Rs 4.49 lakh in three installments from his family’s bank account to Arun’s bank account. However, Arun did not send the cryptocurrency. Realizing he had been cheated, Hariprabhu filed a complaint at the Namakkal Computer Crime Prevention Unit police station. Based on the complaint, the police registered a case and launched an investigation.
The investigation revealed that the money had been transferred through a private bank account. The account holder was identified as Arunkarthik, son of Rengaraj, a resident of Vellalur Chettipalayam Road in Coimbatore. When the police went to Coimbatore to arrest him, Arunkarthik went into hiding.
Meanwhile, it was discovered that Arunkarthik was in Chittur, near Edappadi in Salem district. The police went there and arrested him. They seized a laptop, mobile phone, bank account passbook, checkbook, ATM card, passport, 560 grams of silver bars, a computer modem, and Rs 12,000 in cash from him. He was later produced in court and remanded to Salem Central Prison.
