Almost everyone of us come across adverts that woo us to earn money without doing anything. These adverts may come through Facebook posts it tweets or even as text messages delivered directly to your cell phone. The offers that they publicise is enough to fool people that and thug them easily. All what they ask you to do is simply invest your money and stay online for no reason and if you are lucky enough they might at times pay you back as well.
In one such incident, Delhi’s Special Task Force (STF) team has busted an online racket that has so far tricked over 6 lakh people to invest their money in a scheme that guaranteed heavy returns for hitting online likes. The main accused is a 26-year-old B.Tech graduate, Anubhav Mittal. The total money duped from the investors is estimated to be Rs 3700 Crore. The two others involved in the scam are 40-year-old Shridhar Prasad, an MBA, and 25-year-old Mahesh Dayal, who served as a tech support for the team.
This is the scheme that managed to pull off a scam of 3700 crore
The investors were told that they will get a limited number of links that they will have to click on. For every link that the investors open and hit and like on, a sum 5 Rs will be credited to their name. In simpler words the investors were promised to earn Rs 5/like. The number of links that the investors would get everyday was based on the subscription plan they chose. The investors were also assured of an increment if they brought in more investors within 21 days.
This Is How They Worked
A fake company with the name Ablaze Info Solutions Private Limited was setted up to get the plan under way. After that, it was time to spin the main yarn. They sent out messages asking people to invest their money saying that the company got business from a third party to increase the client’s online hits on digital platforms. Different subscription plans were chalked out for different customers.
Now, this is where the scam got busted!
The links that were sent out to the investors were all dubious URLs that terminated on the same Server. Interestingly, the URLs that were sent out were links of other subscribers. The server on which all these links terminated too turned out to be fake. To fool police, they even kept changing the location of their fake server. In December 2016, a Social Trade website, socialtrade.biz was transferred to freehub.com. Next month, it was again transferred twice. First to intmart.com and the to frenzzup.com.
Amit Pathak, the man who lead the STF team said, “They enrolled people with subscription money ranging from Rs 5,750, Rs 11,500, Rs 28,750 and Rs 57,500. The investors were given a user ID and password and told they would get random URLs on their phone and would be paid Rs 5 per like. We found there was no business from any third party for getting online hits. The probe shows the accused had set up a fake server in Ghaziabad and the URL links terminated on the same server.”
Mittal and his team had rented a four storey apartment at a rent of Rs 7 Lakh per month for their office. The STF team caught over 250 fake passports that all belonging to the employees and technicians of the fraudsters who were to be rewarded with a trip to Australia.
The police during their investigation got Rs 520 crore deposited in 12 accounts of the company registered in Canara Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank and Axis Bank. Interestingly, there were protests against the police too by investors who said that the company was regularly paying them as promised. However, the number of protesters against the fraudsters outnumbered their support. A total of over one lakh complaints were registered against the company through mails, FIRs and every other possible way. Mittal managed a salary of Rs 5 lakh every month while his accomplices received one lakh each.
Phew, another example that shows what an unemployed engineer can do. Had those efforts been on the right path, Mittal would have surely made India proud someday. That said, police yet again proves that no mastermind is good enough for them. Do let us know if you too received any such job offers in our comments section below.