Canadians Charged for $220,000 Bitcoin Scam on Twitter

Two Canadian nationals have been indicted for scheming to steal bitcoin from an Oregon resident.

Karanjit and Jagroop Singh Khatkar of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, posed as customer service representatives of HitBTC, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, in order to steal login credentials of a target’s account.

According to a statement from the Attorney’s Office of the District of Oregon, the fraudsters created a Twitter account called @HitBTCAssist to respond to the victim’s questions online. Using information they phished from customers, Karanjit and Jagroop were able to withdraw approximately $233,220 in bitcoin from the victim’s account.

Initially, 23.2 bitcoin were transfered from HitBTC to Karanjit’s account at a separate crypto exchange Kraken. Then, Karanjit transferred half that amount into Jagroops Kraken wallet.

Following an sting by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Karanjit was arrested at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 18. He was detained ahead of a trial set for October 8.

"Jagroop Singh Khatkar remains at large and is believed to be in Canada," wrote federal agents.

Phishing photo via Shutterstock