Pakistan is looking into Binance for a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency fraud.

After receiving many complaints about an ongoing fraud that involves deceiving investors into transmitting cash from Binance wallets to unknown third-party wallets, Pakistan’s government authorities launched a criminal inquiry.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has sent a formal warning to cryptocurrency exchange Binance in an effort to discover linkages in the region’s multi-million dollar crypto fraud.

 According to local media reports, the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing has issued a summons to Binance Pakistan’s general manager Hamza Khan in order to discover the exchange’s connection to “fraudulent online investing mobile applications.

A related query has also been submitted to Binance Headquarters Cayman Islands and Binance US to explain the situation, according to the notification. Under the guise of unrealistic profits, investment fraudsters in Pakistan enticed customers to register on Binance and transfer cash to third-party wallets. The following is stated in the FIA notice:

These programs enrich existing clients at the expense of new clients and eventually vanish after amassing a huge capital base worth billions of rupees.

Based on citizen complaints, the Pakistani agency discovered at least 11 fraudulent mobile applications that abruptly ceased operation after successfully taking the user’s cash. FIA has discovered the following applications: MCX, HFC, HTFOX, FXCOPY, OKIMINI, BB001, AVG86C, BX66, UG, TASKTOK, and 91fp.

The scammers invited the victims to a Telegram group for offering professional betting recommendations in addition to urging people to join up on Binance to transfer the monies. On average, each application housed roughly 5,000 consumers. The warning further stated:

At least 26 suspicious blockchain wallet addresses (Binance wallet addresses) where fraudulent funds may have been transmitted have been found. A letter has been sent to Binance Holdings Limited in order to obtain the details of these blockchain wallet accounts and to debit block them.

Binance has also been asked for further information, such as formal supporting documentation and the integration method of the APIs used by the fraudsters to access Binance’s services.