Binance Helps India Take Down Billion Rupee Crypto Scheme

Binance and the ED of India takee down billion Rupee scam. We investigate the relationship this fraud has with online casino gaming. (Image by Deepkcreation on Vecteezy)

One of the reasons the founders of Casinoplusbonus started the site was to help online casino players avoid scams.

Therefore, when I saw the latest Binance Fiewin news covering its involvement in helping the Indian government crackdown on a Billion Rupee Fiewin-app scam in India, it gave me the perfect excuse to remind Casinoplusbonus readers just how important it is to check online casino licensing and the operating company behind the casino.

The Fiewin App Fraud is Similar to Fraud Online Casinos

One thing the Fiewin App has proved is that it is not only the online gambling sphere that is susceptible to fraud, as we just learned from Binance.

The crypto exchange recently helped the Indian government’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) put an end to a company that scammed players out of more than 4 billion rupees.

The investment scam used an app called Fiewin to get people to invest with promises of huge returns. However, as we have seen with many bot crypto and financial investment apps and with unlicensed cryptocurrency casinos, customer funds on Fiewin eventually disappeared.

Although the scam is not online casino-related, it serves as a stark warning to check the licensing and company information of any platform you invest in. That’s whether it is online gambling, crypto trading, stocks or any other platform that involves you leaving your money in the care of the company operating the website.

In the case of the Fiewin, players were promised returns for playing mini-games. Members were able to top up using the in-app payment options, and withdrawals in the early stages of their membership worked fine.

Enabling its members to cash out initially is a classic way to build member trust. Allowing them to make small withdrawals is a tactic used by many scam operations because it increases the chances of members coming to deposit more.

As with the Fiewin app, the returns were so good for some that they began ploughing larger sums of Rupee and crypto into the scam. Yet, eventually, once accounts hit a certain level of Rupee, members found that their funds were unobtainable.

With rising complaints from the public, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of India stepped in, and requested the Binance crypto wallet exchange’s assistance.

How Did Binance Assist?

• Tracing of Funds and Digital Wallets: Its FIU team to work by tracking how the app owners were laundering funds using crypto wallets.  India’s law were able to track this and map out the complex network of transactions.

• Identification of Key Individuals: The crypto wallet’s analytical experts were able to reveal the individuals managing crypto wallets. This tracking eventually led to the apprehension of four people linked to the scam.

• Blockchain Analysis and Data Sharing: Provided blockchain analysis and shared critical data, which allowed the ED to track the funds that had been transferred from victims’ accounts to various cryptocurrency addresses. This analysis revealed the cross-border nature of the scam and the involvement of different intermediaries.

• Technical Insights and Investigative Assistance: Binance offered technical insights and investigative support, such as pattern analysis and transaction tracing, to reveal the extensive network of financial operations that supported the scam.

What Happened to the Owners of the Fiewin App?

Thanks to a collaborative effort by the ED of India, local police, and the Binance FIU team, four individuals involved in the Fiewin app were arrested. However, whether these four are the brains behind the operation was not mentioned in the official Binance news report.

For the time being, assets connected to the scam that the government is able to freeze have been. In the meantime, investigators will rely on the cooperation of the four involved.

One of the aims is undoubtedly to get the four to confess and reveal where they are storing their huge billion Rupee haul as well as who else is involved. Whether the investigation will lead the government to those involved and recover a substantial amount of the money stolen remains to be seen.

With some luck, some investors will get their money back, or in some cases a percentage of their losses returned. However, this is a huge billion Rupee scam.

If it is an online casino that scams you, generally, the ED of India is unlikely to get involved. Therefore, in the accompanying table, I’ve left you with a few resources created by the Casinoplusbons team to help you avoid being scammed by crypto or online casinos without or with fake licensing.

Need help with a casino dispute? If you need help with a financial dispute with an online casino listed here on Casinoplusbonus, please contact our complaints team via our Casino Complaints guide.