HYDERABAD: In one of the first reported cases of cyber crime, involving cryptocurrency in Hyderabad, the complainant was lured to invest Rs 18 lakh. The police said that the accused lured people though his website -www.3gcoin.eu – saying that by investing through virtual mining they can claim 180 times returns in two years.

The company has a website with URL: www.3gcoin.eu and the agents told the complainant that if he purchased a ‘3G Coin’ (virtual currency) on the website by investing 30 euros, he would get returns of 180 times in a span of two years. The victim was also told by the agents that if he introduced any new investor, 20% of the investment amount would be given as commission.

The victim realised that he was duped after he did not get any monthly returns as promised by the firm and lodged a complaint with police in July.

The company’s operations head, BM Jagadeesha, was arrested in Bengaluru by the Cyderabad cyber crime team on July 16 and is now on remand.

“We have dealt various cases but crypto currency is the first of its kind registered with cyberabad,” said Md. Riyazuddin Inspector of Police, Cyber Crimes, Cyberabad.

Police said there are some other websites like wowcoin, onecoin, richcoin, litcoin that operate and function on the same lines.

“These websites claim to be similar to Bitcoin which has become successful to some extent,” said Riyazuddin. These fraud companies take advantage of Bitcoin’s success and try to lure investors, he added.