Chennai police are investigating a case of major digital currency fraud following a complaint by Indrani Maruthumuthu against P Madhesh for convincing her to invest in Wow coins, an abandoned cryptocurrency platform, and conning her of Rs 17 lakh.
Indrani, a pharmacist based in West Mambalam alleged that Madhesh, an agent of Wow Digital solutions in Annanagar, approached her via Facebook and convinced her to invest in 'wow coins', according to a report in The Hindu.
After this conversation, Madhesh introduced her to the company's directors Padmaj Bomishetty Srinivasulu and Aarathy Anavaram Bommishetty and Clint Joseph Rodrigues who convinced her to invest in the cryptocurrency.
The company's directors, who are based in Annanagar, promised her that Wow coins would grow 10 times in the first year and 1000 times in the third year. The also claimed that Wow coins would beat bitcoins in the future, according to The Hindu report.
According to Indrani's complaint, she states that, "They made me believe by showing the company’s pamphlets, promotional videos of celebrities and cash withdrawal receipts, photos of selling Wow coins. They also showed me a list of 3,000 existing investors, which made me fully believe their promise.”
They even reportedly added her to a WhatsApp group of wow coin traders.
Following this, Indrani invested Rs 17 lakh in 2016 and the directors even reportedly said that she could withdraw her principal amount back anytime.
They then opened a trading account for Indrani on their website wowtrade.com and allegedly showed her false proof that her money was growing everyday, according to a TOI report.
They even issued ATM cards to withdraw money in the future. But no ATM centres were opened, according to The Hindu report.
However, Indrani realised that she was being duped after she reportedly tried and failed to reap any of the profits she was allegedly earning on her investment.
The Wow Coin currency has been termed abandoned as it reportedly had little to no trading activity in this year and the developer has also not renewed the domain names, according to the TOI report.
Indrani's complaint also stated that the Wow Coin office remained closed since January. And when she asked for her investment to be given back, she was threatened by the company manager, Akila Mary.
The Annanagar police are currently investigating the case. However, it is likely to be shifted to the
Central Crime Branch which has a specialised unit to probe the case.