A 23-year-old MBBS student named Vikram Vishnoi was recently detained by authorities in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, for his role in a cyber fraud scheme in which he assisted in transferring around Rs 8 lakh of illicit funds to a Chinese gang by converting them into bitcoin. After an inquiry connected Vishnoi to a case in which a software engineer in the city was defrauded of Rs 1.35 lakh through a digital scam known as “digital arrest,” he was taken into custody.
Vishnoi, a third-year MBBS student at the Government Medical College in Alibag, Maharashtra, is originally from Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Detectives discovered Vishnoi’s involvement in the cyber fraud scheme, which led to his detention, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Rajesh Kumar Tripathi. According to reports, Vishnoi was giving a group of cybercriminals his bank account information in return for a commission. A group of five Chinese adolescents received the money from these fraudulent transactions after it was moved to a cryptocurrency exchange and transformed into digital currency. There have been reports that these young people were linked to Vishnoi via a Telegram group.
According to the police investigation, Vishnoi converted the money that had been gained fraudulently into bitcoin using his account on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. After that, he transferred the converted funds—roughly Rs 8 lakh—to a Chinese cryptocurrency wallet using the code name “TLX.” Despite linguistic limitations, Vishnoi was able to converse with the Chinese gang members through a chatbot that offered mutual translation between Chinese and English.
The Chinese gang’s role in cybercrimes throughout India is still being looked into by the Indore police. In order to help with the investigation and track the precise movement of funds, they have emailed Binance and Telegram to request information. Vishnoi’s involvement in assisting with the cryptocurrency money laundering is a crucial component of the police investigation into how the Chinese gang is planning cybercrimes in India.
This case highlights the rising worries about cryptocurrency money laundering and cyber fraud. The anonymity offered by digital currencies and messaging apps like Telegram makes it difficult for law enforcement to monitor and stop such actions, especially in the face of regulatory systems designed to combat such crimes. Finding the entire extent of this cybercrime network and its global ties is the goal of the Indore police’s ongoing investigation.
SOURCE :
TIMES OF INDIA
