It was a bright and sunny afternoon in a small town near Bengaluru. Radha sat at the kitchen table, flipping through newspapers for her next story. Her father, Ramesh, a simple and hardworking man, was glued to his phone, eyes wide with excitement.
"Radha, you won't believe this! NeoCoin! It's a new cryptocurrency, and it's taking the world by storm! High returns, no risk—this is my big chance to finally retire and relax" he said, showing her a flashy ad on his phone. The screen flashed images of celebrities, stars, tech gurus, and social media influencers—all endorsing NeoCoin.
Radha, with her journalist instincts, frowned. She had heard of these "too good to be true" investments before. But her father, who was already daydreaming about a life free from the daily grind, was too eager to notice the warning signs.
"Papa, don't you think it's a little too good to be true? A cryptocurrency that promises *high returns* with no risk?" she said with a skeptical smile.
"Nonsense, beta! You always worry too much. Look at this!" He pointed to the screen, where a famous star was holding up a NeoCoin logo, claiming to have made millions. "Even Mr. Sharma from next door is investing! Everyone's talking about it!"
"Mr. Sharma? The same guy who thought the stock market was a casino? Yeah, real smart." Radha muttered under her breath, but her father was already too far gone in his excitement.
Aryan, the Mastermind
Across town, Aryan sat comfortably in a sleek office, his fingers tapping furiously on his laptop. Behind the scenes, while the celebrities danced on Instagram, Aryan was busy writing the code that would make him a fortune. NeoCoin wasn't just another cryptocurrency; it was a trap.
"Time to reel them in", Aryan muttered to himself with a smirk. He had everything in place: the flashy marketing, the fake endorsements, and the perfect scam. All he needed now was the code.
Aryan opened his laptop and began typing rapidly in Solidity, the programming language used to create smart contracts for cryptocurrencies. His fingers moved like a pianist's, but the notes they struck were not music—they were the keys to deception.
Snippet of Aryan's Solidity Code (Fraudulent)
// Fake token contract
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
contract NeoCoin {
mapping(address => uint256) private balances;
address private owner;
constructor() {
owner = msg.sender; // Set the contract creator as the owner
}
// This function lets anyone buy tokens
function buyToken() public payable {
balances[msg.sender] += msg.value * 10; // Fake conversion rate, 1 ETH = 10 tokens
}
// This function lets the owner drain all the funds
function drainFunds() public {
require(msg.sender == owner, "Not authorized"); // Only the owner can drain funds
payable(owner).transfer(address(this).balance); // Transfer all the funds to the owner
}
}
Code Explanation:
- Owner Setup: The constructor `owner = msg.sender` sets Aryan as the "owner" of the contract. This means that Aryan has the power to control the contract and take the money whenever he wants.
- Buy Tokens: The `buyToken` function allows anyone to send Ether (ETH) to the contract and receive tokens in return. But notice how the exchange rate is rigged: for every 1 ETH sent, the investor gets 10 tokens, but Aryan controls the whole system.
- Drain Funds: The `drainFunds` function is the key to Aryan's scam. It allows him to withdraw all the funds in the contract and transfer them to his wallet. Only he, the "owner" can do this.
The Investment
Radha's father, excited beyond belief, showed Radha the app where he could invest in NeoCoin. He eagerly entered his bank details, transferred a huge sum of money, and within minutes, he received his first batch of NeoCoin tokens.
"See, beta! I told you! 10,000 NeoCoins for just 1 Ether! Look at the value go up already! This is it! I'm going to buy that house near the beach!" Ramesh laughed, eyes sparkling with dreams of the future.
Radha tried to raise some doubts, but the excitement in her father's eyes was contagious. "Maybe I should just invest a little... it is the future of money." she thought, glancing at the phone.
Before she could stop herself, she typed in her details and transferred a smaller amount to see how the process worked.
"Don't worry, Radha. Everything's fine! These guys are legit." her father said, oblivious to the dangers lurking behind the slick marketing campaign.
The Trap Closes
As the days passed, Radha's father checked his account every hour. The value of his NeoCoins was rising fast, just like they promised. But what he didn't know was that Aryan was secretly draining the funds, quietly transferring millions to his own wallet.
"One more day, and I'll be a millionaire!" Ramesh kept saying, never questioning why the tokens he bought weren't being traded on any exchanges.
Meanwhile, Radha decided to investigate further. She had been reading about the sudden rise of NeoCoin, and something just didn't sit right. She discovered that there were no real technical reviews or whitepapers about the coin. No one could explain how the coin worked, except for the flashy ads and influencer endorsements.
The Beginning of the Investigation
Radha, determined to figure out what was really going on, started digging into the technical aspects of NeoCoin. She reached out to a few people in the crypto world who might know more. One of them, an ethical hacker named Ravi, agreed to meet her.
At a café near MG Road, Radha met Ravi, who was sipping his coffee and staring at his laptop. "Look at this" Ravi said, showing her a piece of code from NeoCoin. "This is a classic scam. They've rigged everything so that the creator gets all the money, and no one can ever trade their coins."
He continued, "You see this line in the `drainFunds` function? Only the owner can access it. That's how they steal the funds. Once they've accumulated enough Ether from unsuspecting victims like your father, they just drain it all into their own wallet."
Radha felt a cold shiver down her spine. "But how do we stop it?"
"We expose them. The public needs to know how these scams work and how to avoid them."
As Radha's father proudly looked at his NeoCoin balance, completely unaware of the scam, Radha knew she had to act fast. She could feel the weight of the responsibility on her shoulders, knowing that thousands, maybe millions, of people like her father were falling victim to the same scam.
With Ravi's help, she started gathering evidence and planning her next move. The war against scammers like Aryan had just begun.
--- To be continued