The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached assets worth ₹42.8 crore linked to a person arrested in the United States for alleged involvement in a cyber fraud by spoofing the website of cryptocurrency exchange “Coinbase”.
The 18 properties belonging to the accused Chirag Tomar, his family members, and associated entities are located in Delhi and include credits in bank accounts.
The agency launched investigations based on news reports about Chirag Tomar, an Indian national, who was arrested in the U.S. for allegedly stealing over $20 million through the use of fake or spoofed websites mimicking the cryptocurrency exchange website Coinbase.
“The ED investigation revealed that the trusted websites were spoofed in such a way by search engine optimisation that when the website would be searched, the spoofed website would appear at the top. The spoofed website appeared exactly similar to the trusted website except the contact details. When the users would enter the login credentials, the spoofed website would show it wrong,” the agency said.
“Therefore, the users would contact the number given in the spoofed website which would eventually connect them to the designated call centre managed by Chirag Tomar. Once the fraudsters gained access to the victim’s accounts, the fraudsters quickly transferred the victim’s cryptocurrency holdings to e-wallets under their control,” it said.
