Scams Of 2024: Digital Arrests, Evergrande’s '$78-Billion Fraud', Rs 2,000-Crore WazirX Heist And More

Financial scams account for a major portion of crimes committed annually across the globe, and the year 2024 was no different. Despite regulatory mechanisms being tightened, monetary frauds have been reported consistently. The digital advancements, including the emergence of new-age technology, are also being rapidly exploited by the scamsters.

Here's a look at five scams that grabbed headlines in 2024:

Indians cumulatively lost Rs 120.3 crore in "digital arrest" frauds, between January and April this year, The Indian Express reported in October, citing Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre data.

Digital arrest is a new kind of fraud that has alarmed the authorities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his recent monthly radio address, appealed to to the citizens to remain vigilant. He clarified that there is "no system like digital arrest under the law".

Under digital arrest, scamsters posing as law enforcement officials target people through phone or video calls. They create an atmosphere that suggests that the victim has accidentally ended up in a legal case. Their aim is to end up extorting money from the victims by threatening them with the possibility of being jailed, cyber security experts said.

In March 2024, two months after China's struggling real estate giant Evergrande was ordered to liquidate, the company was accused of inflating its revenues by $78 billion.

In view of the charges, the China Securities Regulatory Commission imposed a fine of $583 million on Hengda Real Estate, which is Evergrande's main business unit in mainland China.

In addition, a fine of $6.5 million, along with a lifetime ban from the securities market was imposed on Xu Jiayin, the founder of Evergrande and once the richest individual of China.

WazirX, an Indian platform that allows users to trade in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies, was hit by a $230-million or around Rs 2,000-crore heist in July. The fraud, meticulously carried out by scamsters, wiped away 45% of the total assets.

The company, in September, said the restructuring of its crypto balances will take at least six months. It had applied for a restructuring at a Singapore court on Aug. 23.

Under the restructuring, WazirX's priority is to distribute remaining token assets to users in a pro-rata manner via crypto and not fiat, it said. Of the available funds, about 45% will be required as costs for the restructuring, the company's spokespersons said.

Online romantic scams, where victims are lured by fraudsters in an intimate relationship only to extort money from them or manipulate them to invest in fraudulent schemes, are not a new phenomenon. But a case in Philippines drew global headlines this year as it was revealed that more than 650 persons were "entrapped" at a scam centre to pose as lovers online.

The case was exposed in March this year, after the local police raided the scam centre, located 100 km north of capital Manila. It was revealed that the fraud kingpins had lured people on the pretext of providing them jobs, but instead forced them to target individuals, mostly Chinese, on social media, BBC reported.

The police raid led to the rescue of 383 Filipinos, along with 202 Chinese nationals and 73 other foreigners, the report added. It further said that the case was brought to the police's notice by a Vietnamese man who managed to flee from the scam centre in February-end.

The person told the police that he was lured by the scamsters in January on the pretext of providing chef's job. However, once brought to the scam centre, he realised that there were hundreds who were entrapped by the human traffickers who were running the love scam.

In a first-of-its kind of cryptocurrency heist, the US Department of Justice charged two individuals in May of stealing $25-million worth of Etherium in just 12 seconds. Although the amount involved was relatively lower as compared to millions of dollars lost annually in cyber fraud, what surprised investigators was the manner in which the scam was executed.

The pair, educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, carried out the fraud through a "technologically sophisticated, cutting-edge scheme they plotted for months and executed in seconds", the investigators were reported as saying.

The accused were identified as Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, and James Peraire-Bueno, 28. They were charged with wire fraud and money laundering. If convicted, they could face imprisonment of up to 20 years.