During the Interpol General Assembly from October 18 to October 21 in the Indian Capital New Delhi, Austrian representatives complimented India for its cooperation in investigating crypto scams. Austria’s Federal Police and Director of Criminal Intelligence Service, General Mag Andreas Holzer thanked India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its probe that helped reduce crypto scams in Austria and other European countries, media reports said.
According to CBI representatives at the event, it received complaints from several European countries stating that scams through phone calls are being operated from India. Based on these inputs, CBI raided two call centers in Delhi and Noida and froze bitcoins in different crypto wallets and money in a bank account, together worth $80,000.
“During the operation, about 25.83 Bitcoins and over ₹30.92 lakh (Approx. $40,000) stored in different wallets of the accused were frozen along with about ₹30.43 lakh (Approx. $40,000) lying in a bank account,” a CBI representative said.
He further informed that the accused would call people in these countries impersonating Europol officers and tell them that their identities have been stolen and crimes linked to narcotic drugs are being committed in their names. They would further suggest that to clear their names, they should deposit a certain amount of money in a trust account through cryptocurrencies.
In his interactions with media persons, Holzer revealed that fraud cases involving phone calls have greatly increased. Austria would host the next Interpol General Assembly in Vienna on its 100th year to mark the inception of the international police organization here in 1923.
