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A 71-year-old digital artist from India fell victim to scammers posing as an nft art dealer.
According to a local report, Shivaprasad R (name changed), a practicing chartered accountant (CA), lost INR 1.58 lakhs (approximately $1,895) in fees to fraudsters who promised to buy his art.
Shivaprasad is a professional artist whose work has been featured in several local exhibitions and posted on instagram and facebook. In October 2023, scammers, claiming to be an “nft art trader,” introduced the artist to a platform called nfttradeplace.com.
The scammer told the victim that he would like to buy his paintings for 42 eth, or INR 1.09 crore, a significant sum in India. All negotiations were conducted virtually, via email and facebook.
The digital artist accepted the offer and listed three of his artworks for 10 eth and another for 12 eth. On February 1, 2024, the victim was asked to pay 0.115 eth to the scammer's platform as a “gas fee.”
“The victim made the payment from his crypto wallet, which he set up at the behest of the scammer,” said a cybercrime investigator. nfts–crypto-a-web-of-deceit-how-a-digital-artist-was-duped-2988182″ target=”_blank” rel=””>aforementioned saying.
After completing his first sale, the artist requested a withdrawal of 6 eth from his profits. However, despite waiting several days, no transaction was initiated. Upon rechecking, Shivaprasad was asked to pay a “delay fee” for allegedly delaying the withdrawal of his cryptocurrency.
“This delay charge was never discussed or displayed on the website,” the victim said in a statement.
He added that since he was not in possession of any eth, he had asked the scammers to accept the late fees in fiat currency. The scammers accepted this request and the victim made four payments to the accounts of Mohammed Ekramul Haque and Mohammad Farooq. It has not been confirmed whether these people are the masterminds of this scam.
Shivaprasad made the last payment to the fraudsters on March 15. He noted that the platform “kept asking him for more payments” in order to withdraw his 6 eth.
It was then that the victim realized that he had been deceived by his nft clients. On April 17, the victim contacted the cyber police and filed charges under 66C (punishment for identity theft) and 66D (punishment for cheating by using computer resources) of the Information technology (IT) Act. and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery). property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
“It is very difficult to trace traces of cryptocurrencies. So far, the bank details and domain details of the email address used by the scammers have been sought,” said an official familiar with the matter.
Cryptocurrency scams have seen a significant rise in India, despite crackdowns by local authorities. Last week, the country's Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched an investigation into an $800 million Ponzi scheme involving a Bollywood celebrity.
Before that, a job recruitment scam was flagged in the nation, in which scammers drained their victims' crypto wallets using spyware disguised as apps promoted as essential to the onboarding process.
