The crimes and frauds in the digital assets sector have been on a surge concerning the regulators, institutions and the industry participants fairly.
In a recent revelation, two individuals have been arrested in Dubai for defrauding an Asian investor and his alibi with fake crypto schemes. The accused deceived the investor with a fake Bitcoin scheme and stole nearly $50,000, three phones, and documents from them.
The assault occurred in July last year in the Mankhool area of Dubai. Sources reveal that the incident started when two undisclosed individuals wanting to invest in Bitcoin found a suspicious promoter who further persuaded them to invest with their help. One of the victims invited the accused to his house for a meeting.
Upon reaching the victim’s place, the accused requested to see the cash value of the cryptocurrencies they wanted to purchase worth Bitcoin. He also promised to return to him with his apparent partner, who would sell them the Bitcoin within 15 minutes. After he left, the buyers waited in the house, and when the accused duo returned, they threatened to hand over the valuables or else they would lose their life. The accused assaulted the victims and stole the bag with Dh 183,000 (around $50,000), three phones, bank checks, and official documents.
The Criminal Court, i.e., the law enforcement agency, opened the investigation and detained the criminals. It sentenced them to jail for three years, followed by deportation post-release. A fine worth the money stolen has also been placed on them.
However, this is not the first time such an assault has occurred. In 2021, Zaryn Dentzel, an American computer scientist and founder of Tuenti Technologies, a Spain-based tech company focused on providing cloud-based services through its application, and its website to its customers, also suffered a similar assault. Five criminals attacked him in his house in Madrid, the capital of Spain, and tortured him into giving him access to their Bitcoin holdings.
The perpetrators used a high level of physical torture, including beatings and electrocuting them, to gain the passwords to the holdings. The founder had Bitcoin worth millions of Euros, and the accused stole his phones, laptops, and tablets before escaping. They cleaned the area of the incident well by spraying the victims and removing fingerprints from the products etc.
About a year was spent by the police to arrest the suspects in the crime, which involved three men and one woman who were immigrants from Eastern Europe.
Crypto fraud has been increasing steadily, and no country has been safe from it. As reported by Todayq News, the United Kingdom recently witnessed a 32% spike in crypto frauds taking the estimated value to 226 million pounds ($273 million).