Three social media influencers booked for promoting crypto scamster’s Insta account

According to the police, a case was registered at Kalachowkie police station on June 23 following which the accused, Mohammad Hamza Zaki Anwar, was traced at Khidirpur in Kolkata. A team was sent to his residence and he was arrested. “Several people in the same district have been committing similar crimes of duping people,” a police officer said.

According to the police, Anwar, who is a Class 12 pass-out, created an Instagram account called Crypto_Anaisha through which he had been allegedly duping people by claiming he could double their money in 30 to 35 minutes by investing it in crypto currency.

The accused even put out ads and promotions on Instagram. Several people approached him and were ultimately duped. The complainant in the case also came across one such promotion by a social media influencer. “We have learnt that Athare was paid Rs 30,000 in July 2022 for promoting Anwar’s Instagram account for two to three days while Suravase was paid Rs 40,000. Ankita was paid Rs 25,000 in July 2022 to promote his account,” an officer said.

The police said Athare and Suravase’s statements were recorded, they were served notice and allowed to go. “These influencers have followers in millions on their Instagram accounts and when they post such promotional videos, their followers believe they themselves invested their money, which doubled. There are no such schemes by the government that these influencers are promoting. Instead they were helping a fraudster get more people to fall for such claims… that’s why we have booked them,” an officer said.