Hyderabad: The craze for bitcoin investments, which the Union finance ministry warned against on Friday, is shifting from city to the districts.
Employees, traders and youth are investing in bitcoins with a hope of reaping rich dividends within a short period.
Brokers are luring people to invest in bitcoins by offering free foreign trips for those investing up to Rs 10 lakh. Brokers are promising to double the investment within five months.
Teachers and students in colleges remain the focus area for brokers who intend to capture customers in bulk. They are offering special incentives to teachers who get students enrolled in their schemes.
The income-tax department is closely monitoring the bitcoin transactions to check tax evasion and other violations.
The trend was visible in Hyderabad since 2013, but the frenzy has now spread to major towns in districts such as Warangal, Karimnagar, Mancherial, Nizamabad and Khammam.
The brokers’ network too spread its wings in the districts to cash in on the demand.
Foreign trips are being arranged to Singapore, Malaysia, Bangkok, Sri Lanka etc for those making investments up to Rs 10 lakh.
The modus operandi is to lure customers by promising that if they invest '1 lakh, it will be doubled in one to five months. Those investing up to '10 lakh at a time are promised twice the sum in two months.
The Bengaluru investigation wing of the I-T department carried out surveys at nine bitcoin exchanges across the country, including Hyderabad last week.
An official in the I-T department said, “These surveys were done under Section 133(A) of the I-T Act to gather evidence to establish the identity of investors and traders, transactions done by them, identify of the counter parties, bank accounts used.”
