Pakistan’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FIA) has reportedly issued a formal notice to the crypto exchange Binance to identify links related to millions of crypto frauds in the region.
The Pakistani government has launched a criminal investigation after receiving numerous complaints about ongoing fraud, including misleading investors into sending money from a Binance wallet to an unknown third-party wallet. According to local reports, the FIA’s Cybercrime Wing has ordered to attend Binance Pakistan’s general manager Hamza Khan to identify the exchange’s link to a “fraudulent online investment mobile application.”
Karachi: The Fédération Internationale de l’Eclairage (FIA) has detected an online scam of Rs 100 billion using cryptocurrencies and issued a notice to local representatives of Binance. @cz_binance @binance @BinanceHelpDesk @BinanceUS pic.twitter.com/3ou kwzmDqh
— Innocent Pashteen ✌ (@ FighterDawar) January 7, 2022
“A related survey was also sent to the Cayman Islands at Binance Headquarters and Binance US, explaining the same thing,” he read the notice. Investment fraud in Pakistan was carried out by using unrealistic returns as an excuse to enroll users in Binance and ask them to transfer their funds to a third-party wallet. According to the FIA notice:
“These schemes benefit old clients at the expense of new ones and eventually disappear when they build a substantial capital base worth billions of rupees.”
Based on complaints from citizens, Pakistani agencies have identified at least 11 malicious mobile apps that suddenly stopped working after successfully stealing a user’s funds. The apps identified by the FIA are MCX, HFC, HTFOX, FXCOPY, OKIMINI, BB001, AVG86C, BX66, UG, TASKTOK, and 91fp.
The scammers have added victims to the Telegram group to provide “expert betting cues” in addition to instructing users to sign up for Binance to transfer funds. Each application hosted an average of about 5,000 customers. Added notifications:
“At least 26 suspicious blockchain wallet addresses (Binance wallet addresses) have been identified that may have been transferred with fraudulent amounts. A letter was written to Binance Holdings Limited with details of these blockchain wallet accounts. The debit block is listed. “
Binance is also required to provide details such as official support documentation and the API integration mechanism used by scammers to connect to Binance’s services. The FIA actively blocked bank accounts linked to suspicious apps, but the notification warned:
“In case of non-compliance, FIA cybercrime is justified in recommending a fine for Binance through Pakistan’s State Bank.”
Binance has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Related: Pakistanis have $ 20 billion in crypto assets, says the head of the local association
In December 2021, Nasir Hayat Magoon, Chairman of the Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Federation (FPCCI), revealed that Pakistani citizens have a total of $ 20 billion in crypto assets.
As Cointelegraph reported, the FPCCI president confirmed the numbers based on a research paper published by the Chamber of Commerce. In support of this claim, the 2021 Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index ranked Pakistan the third highest index score after Vietnam and India.
