Ii Canadian men who defrauded a Bitcoin (BTC) investor out of $140,000 by impersonating exchange HitBTC may serve two years in prison.

Co-ordinate to court records on December. 16, brothers Jagroop Singh Khatkar and Karanjit Singh Khatkhar pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud over a scam carried out via Twitter in July 2022.

HitBTC victim: "I feel deplorable for them"

The case originally came to light in July this year, as per documents filed with the United states District Court in Portland, Oregon.

Posing every bit the back up service for HitBTC, the pair convinced a user, an unnamed 63-year-former woman, to reveal the email address attached to her trading account. They and then hacked into the account, stealing 23 BTC, worth around $140,000 at the fourth dimension.

As per the documents, the Singh Khatkhars "did unlawfully, knowingly, and intentionally transfer, possess, and utilize, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another, knowing that the means of identification belonged to a existent person."

At a plea hearing on Mon, the victim took pity on the defendants, having learned she would likely win back possession of the lost funds.

"I feel sorry for them. I have a son that's 27. I hope they tin turn their smarts into something more beneficial," she reportedly said.

The Singh Khatkhars will render for sentencing adjacent March.

Bitcoin scams proceed to surface

The example highlights the persisting trend of bad actors cashing in on cryptocurrency'due south increasing mainstream appeal.

As Cointelegraph reported, the previous few months alone have seen multiple instances of offense associated with the theft of assets, some of which dwarf the Singh Khatkhars' $140,000 haul.

Earlier in December, police in New Jersey arrested iii men associated with an alleged cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme which collected a whopping $722 1000000.

Suspicions have likewise surfaced over new market place entrants, notably in connection with the setup and profit potential touted by the founder of altcoin HEX, which launched at the start of this calendar month.