Health officer duped of 6 lakh in crypto fraud

Hyderabad: A govt health officer posted in Hyderabad became the victim of a sophisticated trading scam, losing 5.77 lakh after being tricked into transferring funds by a fraudster. The 30-year-old officer, who regularly trades on the Binance app, fell prey to the scam while attempting to transfer USDT (cryptocurrency) to her account via P2P (peer-to-peer) transfer.
The fraudster intervened during the transaction, claiming that they would help verify and process the transfer. The officer was directed to send funds to an account provided by the scammer for further verification. Trusting the instructions, the officer followed them through the Web3 option on the Binance app.
Soon after, the officer noticed three unfamiliar transactions in her Binance Web3 history, and upon checking her Binance wallet, discovered that the balance was emptied.
The situation worsened when the officer began receiving multiple scam calls from people pretending to be Binance customer support. The callers asked her to accept video calls and follow suspicious links. They also sent emails and directed her to a fraudulent website, verifybep.in, to complete verification. Realising she had been duped, the officer approached the cyber crime wing of Hyderabad, which has since launched an investigation into the matter.
Authorities have issued a warning to cryptocurrency users, advising them to double-check recipient details before making any transfers.