UP police bust online fraud of Rs 3,700 cr

Busting an online fraud to the tune of Rs 3,700 crore, the Uttar Pradesh police have arrested three persons alleged to have duped nearly 6.5 lakh people through an online portal, police said on Thursday.

Busting one of the biggest internet frauds, the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh police arrested the trio of Anubhav Mittal, Sridhar Prasad and Mahesh Dayal from Sector 63 in Noida on Wednesday and seized nearly Rs 500 crore.

"The accused used to run a portal 'socialtrade.biz' under which an investor had to pay anything between Rs 5,750 to Rs 57,500 in the company's account to become the member and earn Rs 5 per click.

"Registered under the name of Ablaze Info Solutions Pvt Ltd. in Noida, they used to constantly change the portal's name. So far they defrauded over 6.5 lakh people collecting around Rs 3,700 crore," Superintendent of Police (Uttar Pradesh STF) Triveni Singh, told IANS.

Mittal, said to be the kingpin, holds a B.Tech degree and hails from Ghaziabad. Prasad is from Visakhapatnam and Dayal is from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

Launched in August 2015, the portal offered four different 'packages' to the investors to earn money. After paying the money to the company, the investors were asked to like pages and click on the links they were sent.

"The company claimed it earned Rs 6 for every click and gave Rs 5 of it to the investors. However, the links sent by the company were fake," said the officer, adding police were looking for other people suspected to be involved in the fraud.

Besides seizing Rs 500 crore from a bank, police have seized various documents including the balance sheet of the company, list of directors and other officials and list of investors.

The STF has also informed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Income Tax department and market regulator SEBI about the case.

--IANS

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