India Plagued By Crypto Scams

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The massive possibilities of the Indian subcontinent are becoming more and more obvious for crypto investors willing to get in early. This is not too surprising considering the possible growth curve. Crypto is booming business in cities like Delhi and Mumbai after the country’s Supreme Court, in March of this year, finally overruled the banking ban which had previously been imposed by the Reserve Bank of India. Problem is that Prime Minister Modi’s political party could still impose an all-out ban on crypto as a whole, so there is a dark shadow hanging over the growing industry.

Another problem is that the huge economic opportunity also brings a lot of scams with it. Whereas we reported a few weeks ago about the Morris Coin debacle (which took place in the Kerala region), it seems that the capital Delhi is also getting its fair share of crypto scams.

Manan Shah, Founder and CEO of Avalance Global Solutions in Delhi, stated:

I have seen so many wealthy Indian falling into the trap of such fake cryptocurrency wallets in the recent past. One gentleman just came to me who lost $50,000 while dealing with one such fake platform.

Pluto Exchange

Another one took place at the end of September already, a crypto exchange platform called Pluto lured some 43 investors into giving them a total of $270k for a chance to mine cryptocurrencies. A promise of 20 to 30% monthly return on their investment was enough to trick them.

Indian Crypto Exchange Pluto Scammed Users Of Rs.2 Crore !
https://t.co/hvxaEROw2d
Via @hodlertvindia

— ByDDip (@Cryptoblock0) October 6, 2020

The founder of the exchange, Bharat Verma, is a man with a long history in the world of Indian crypto and it is therefore all the more surprising that he is now accused of scamming his customers. Back in 2017, he launched a first mobile trading app for buying and selling crypto in India.

In an interview with the renowned Indian newspaper The Hindu, he at the time stated:

The Pluto Exchange mobile app offers a solution to the coordination problem between payment processors, financial gateways and banks.

All other apps already in the market do transactions using bitcoin addresses, which are long and prone to error while copying. Pluto Exchange will change this scenario by enabling transactions using mobile numbers only, which are just 10 digits.

Three years, later, Mr Verma is accused of having run an exit scam with the funds of some of his customers.

It would appear that the promise of riches that comes with investing into crypto, also comes with its risks in India.