PETALING JAYA, Dec 21 — A man trying to profit from Bitcoin trading lost RM7,600 to a fraudster pretending to offer the cryptocurrency for sale on Sunday.

Petaling Jaya police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Zani Che Din said the man in his 30s initially advertised his interest in procuring Bitcoin on localbitcoin.com, a cryptocurrency exchange site.

Mohd Zani said the man was then contacted by an unknown seller with a local telephone number who claimed he was interested in selling 0.1 unit of Bitcoin with the buying price advertised.

One Bitcoin (BTC) is currently valued at RM68,283.99.

"Both agreed to the deal and the victim banked in the agreed sum to a local bank account provided by the suspect,” he said.

The man was told to wait 30 minutes for the transfer to take place, but found none even after three hours.

The seller also became unresponsive, at which point the man decided that he had been cheated.

The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.