- The main culprits of this act are Arun Sahu and Alok Sahu, who were operating as recharge persons from Rourkela, Odisha.
- The investigation revealed that 400 crore INR was stolen in this hack and transferred to different cryptocurrency addresses
The Enforcement Directorate of India has unmasked an online scam of $48 million. Reportedly, the scam was operated through an online gaming platform, FieWin which has its links to the Chinese markets.
The reveal of this scam has been done majorly with the help of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange. As per the reports, cryptocurrency funds were transferred to China in which around $3 million was found frozen in accounts.
The users fell into the trap of scammers as they offered quick earning schemes but later they did not allow them to withdraw their funds.
As several complaints weighed down to the local police, the case was handed over to ED, which resulted in the unmasking of 25 Crore INR that was found frozen during the investigation.
The news was covered by NDTV, an Indian news media company, and its reports stated that, “Newbies started to create an account over the platform and started indulging themselves into the app’s activities. They constantly used the ‘top-up in balance’ option and started transactions via different payment channels.
Once the account was loaded with an ample amount of funds, the scammers didn’t allow them to withdraw them.”
The investigation continued to reveal that 400 crore INR was stolen in this hack and transferred to different cryptocurrency addresses, mainly in China.
Links With The “Recharge Persons”
During the investigation, ED found that money that was being scammed through the gaming platform was deposited in the account of unknown persons who were claimed as “recharge persons.”
These persons were taking commissions from the app developers in exchange for providing their bank accounts for this scam. These bank accounts were a medium to convert their real money by investing it in cryptocurrencies which were later on sent to different wallets.
Binance in its statement mentioned that “ED has found in its investigation that this application has stretched its illegal activities across the border which has disoriented its origin by using mules accounts as well as crypto wallets. They also created a web network which was so complex to detect and trace.”
Arrests in this Online Crypto Scam
The main culprits of this act are Arun Sahu and Alok Sahu belonging to Rourkela, Odisha who were operating as recharge persons, as reported by ED. They are responsible for demanding money through the online gaming platform, FieWin and transferring it to their account.
The real money was later on converted into cryptocurrencies and then a second transaction of transferring crypto to online wallets to the Chinese nationals was traced.
The second step of this process i.e, converting real money to cryptocurrencies was headed by Chetan Prakash, who is an engineer from Patna by profession.
Pie Pengyun, a Chinese national who used a company named Studio 21, which helped him to gain the trust of the players and offer them larger bets through the app was assisted by Joseph Stalin, a software developer from Chennai.
The above-mentioned names were found as the main culprit of this scam and later on, got arrested by the Enforcement Directorate of India.
What Is FieWin App?
FieWin App is an online play and earn application developed by Dreamla which is available over an online platform, Google Play Store. The developers claim this app is a reliable source to integrate with social media platforms to unlock a variety of earning options.
