Sumit Gupta clarifies after Delhi Police files FIR against CoinDCX

CoinDCX withdrawal scams: CoinDCX, a leading cryptocurrency exchange in India, has shared a clarification regarding an FIR filed by Delhi Police after complaints of bank fraud associated with its mobile application. In reply to Republic Business’s queries, Sumit Gupta, co-founder, CoinDCX refused the occurrence of any such incident either on its mobile application or the website. According to Gupta, the issue appears to be nothing but an “unfortunate case of a fake website scam.” 

Recently, Delhi Police filed a cheating case against CoinDCX following complaints of bank fraud in which the users were not able to withdraw their money from the platform without paying an additional sum in the name of tax purposes. Following this, the Police authorities indicated that an investigation is underway, with an impending notice to be issued to CoinDCX for clarification on the allegations.

However, Gupta told Republic Business that nothing of such nature happened on its platform. CoinDCX said, “It's important to note that several fake websites/URLs are in operation, mimicking financial apps to deceive users, a challenge faced by many fintech players and financial apps including crypto apps.  We have reported these threats to CERT. We want to reiterate that the safety and security of users' funds are our absolute top priorities.” 

Background

According to the Cyber Cell, multiple complainants from Delhi reported encountering additional monetary demands when attempting to withdraw their cryptocurrency investments through the CoinDCX app, according to the media reports. Police have consolidated three to four complaints dating back to November of the previous year for investigation.

There have been multiple media reports according to which CoinDCX’s users were asked for extra payments when they tried to withdraw their money from the platform. A 36-year-old man from New Delhi was asked to pay Rs 40,000 extra for withdrawing his initial investments of Rs 1.40 lakh, and another man from Bengaluru was requested to pay an additional Rs 4.65 lakh for taxation purposes on his initial investment of Rs 14.09 lakh. 

Will continue to support regulatory authorities: CoinDCX

Sumit Gupta while talking to Republic Business said that the platform takes any reports of fraudulent activity seriously and has been working with cyber cell and MeITY to deal with such situations. 

“We have stated this before and want to reinforce again: the safety and security of users' funds are our absolute top priorities. As on this matter, we are getting more details and will continue to support in any manner possible both consumers and regulatory authorities,” said, Gupta.

However, the authorities previously stated, "We have consulted relevant online regulations about cryptocurrency investments and subsequently initiated legal proceedings. The veracity of these allegations remains under thorough scrutiny."