Crypto scam sites continue to draw Indians in droves

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : Cryptocurrencies continue to fascinate Indians despite their high volatility and uncertain legal status, with a large number of them seemingly unmindful of the risks involved.

Over the last two years, Indian users have visited many websites running crypto scams millions of times, according to data sourced from blockchain tracking firm Chainalysis Pte Ltd.

Indians visited crypto scam websites more than 17.8 million times in 2020. The figure fell sharply in 2021, but it was still substantial at 9.6 million times. Chainalysis’ data names coinpayu.com, adbtc.top, hackertyper.net, dualmine.com, and coingain.app as the five-most visited scamming websites by Indians over the past year. These sites alone received 4.6 million visits from India last year.

Scams around cryptocurrencies have often been cited as a cause for concern by regulators and politicians in the country. Earlier this month, the Enforcement Directorate attached assets worth ₹36.72 crore in an alleged scam where investors in Kerala were duped with offers to invest in a fake cryptocurrency called Morris Coin.

Crypto scams include phishing websites designed to steal sensitive information from users, as well as ponzi schemes and fake investment plans like Morris Coin. The Kerala case isn’t an isolated one—another scam in Karnataka has been under investigation for over a year now.

Some crypto scams are also disseminated on messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.

“In a few cases, we have seen employees of cryptocurrency exchanges sharing databases of cryptocurrency owners with cybercriminals, who use this information to start cyberattacks using SMS or even WhatsApp messages with phishing links to takeover crypto accounts," said Rahul Tyagi, co-founder,