A 23-year-old persuades residents in the Kazakh city of Almaty to deposit money into his "crypto exchange". But when they want to make a withdrawal, there is no trace of the money.

• Police in Kazakhstan have reportedly shut down a suspected fraudulent crypto trading platform and arrested a man in connection with it.

• The suspected mastermind is a man from Almaty born in 1999, according to police.

• Police said the arrested man is “suspected” of deceiving residents in the city by running a fake crypto platform.

• Officials have recently received an increasing number of reports from aggrieved people. According to them, the 23-year-old offered them to earn money by investing in his “online crypto platform”. However, when they tried to withdraw their funds from the “platform”, this was reportedly not possible.

• The platform is believed to have received investments worth at least US$7,000 from at least eleven people. However, local authorities suspect that this is only the tip of the iceberg. They announced additional investigations into the case to “identify further episodes”.

• In this regard, the local news portal nur.kz stated that people convicted in such cases can be banned from “holding certain positions” or “engaging in certain activities for up to six years”.

• Back in March, Kazakh officials warned against potential crypto scammers, warning InAlmaty not to send money to “dubious projects that promise big dividends by investing money in cryptocurrencies, stocks, precious metals, etc.”