A 71-year-old digital artist from India was tricked by fraudsters posing as an NFT art dealer in a recent incident. The artist, known as Shivaprasad R (name changed), is also a practicing chartered accountant (CA) and lost INR 1.58 lakhs (approximately $1895) in fees to the scammers who promised to purchase his artwork.
Shivaprasad is a talented artist with his work showcased in various local exhibitions and shared on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. In October 2023, the scammers, pretending to be an “NFT art dealer,” introduced the artist to a website called nfttradeplace.com.
The fraudsters informed the victim that they were interested in buying his paintings for 42 ETH, equivalent to INR 1.09 crore, a substantial amount in India. All negotiations were conducted online, through email and Facebook.
The digital artist agreed to the offer and listed three of his artworks for 10 ETH each and another one for 12 ETH. On February 1, 2024, the victim was asked to transfer 0.115 ETH to the scammer’s platform as a “gas fee.”
“A cybercrime investigator mentioned that the victim made the payment from his crypto wallet, which he had set up as per the scammer’s instructions.”
After completing his first sale, the artist requested a withdrawal of 6 ETH from his earnings. However, despite waiting for days, no transaction was initiated. Upon further inquiry, Shivaprasad was asked to pay a “delay fee” for supposedly causing a hold-up in the withdrawal of his cryptocurrency.
“The victim stated that the delay fee was never discussed or displayed on the website.”
Since he did not have any ETH in his possession, he asked the scammers to accept the delay fees in fiat currency. The scammers agreed, and the victim proceeded to make four payments to the accounts of Mohammed Ekramul Haque and Mohammad Farooq. It is unclear whether these individuals were the masterminds behind the scam.
The final payment to the scammers was made by Shivaprasad on March 15. He noted that the platform kept requesting additional payments in order to withdraw his 6 ETH.
Realizing that he had been deceived by his NFT clients, the victim contacted cyber police on April 17 and filed charges under sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology (IT) Act and section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
“An officer familiar with the case mentioned that tracing cryptocurrency trails is extremely challenging. Efforts are underway to obtain bank and domain details related to the email address used by the scammers.”
Despite efforts by local authorities to combat cryptocurrency scams in India, incidents continue to rise. Recently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) initiated an investigation into an $800 million Ponzi scheme involving a Bollywood celebrity. Additionally, a job recruitment scam targeting victims’ crypto wallets through spyware disguised as essential applications for onboarding was also reported in the country.
For more information:
– Fuvo.io shows signs of phishing scam targeting valuable crypto and NFTs
– Indian engineer loses $114K to crypto investment scam