Odisha: Kendrapada doctor lands in bitcoin trap, loses Rs 10 lakh

BHUBANESWAR: A doctor in Kendrapada district has lost Rs 10.22 lakh to scammers, who lured him with high returns on investing in cryptocurency. Badal Kumar Mohanty, a medical officer at Rajkanika, lodged a complaint with the cyber cell of the state Crime Branch on Friday.
An unknown woman, who identified herself as Kati, developed friendship with Mohanty on Instagram in May last year and introduced herself as an expert in crypto investments. Kati lured Mohanty to invest in bitcoins and assured to double and even triple his investments in quick time. Later, she advised him to open an account in a bitcoin mining website to store his cryptos. She offered returns of US $1300, US $2,600 and US $3,900 on investments of only US $100, US $200 and US $300 in just seven days.
An unsuspecting Mohanty walked into her trap and agreed to invest in the crypto platform. He invested Rs 10.22 lakh by purchasing bitcoins through an app and from another website between May 3 and 30, 2021. As advised by her, Mohanty transferred his purchased bitcoins to a digital wallet, designed by the scammers. Mohanty was asked to use the digital wallet for transactions.
After some days, Mohanty wanted to withdraw his money but all his transactions failed. When he contacted Kati, she asked him to pay US $3,934 more to get a tax code. "She also asked him to open an account with Leeds Commercial Bank where his money would get credited to," a police officer said. The doctor then realised that he had been cheated.
Mohanty was unavailable for comment.