Rs 500 cr investment scam: PhonePe, Easebuzz, 20 other firms under probe

Delhi Police also probing alleged involvement of social media influencers

Payment aggregator platforms PhonePe and Easebuzz are under investigation by the Delhi Police’s cyber security cell, the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit, for suspected negligence in opening merchant accounts linked to a Rs 500 crore investment scam case.

The large-scale scam defrauded over 30,000 people, luring them into investing in the Hibox mobile application, which promised high returns with false assurances of daily interest rates ranging from one to 5 per cent, according to IFSO.

“Apps like PhonePe and others have not followed the Reserve Bank of India guidelines while opening virtual merchant accounts, and are being probed to find out whether this was a mistake or if they were actively involved,” Hemant Tiwari, deputy commissioner of police, IFSO, Special Cell, Delhi Police, told Business Standard.

IFSO is a specialised unit investigating cybercrime in India, in coordination with other agencies.

In an official release, IFSO said the involvement of employees from the payment platforms could not be ruled out, and the investigation was underway.

Email queries sent to PhonePe and Easebuzz did not elicit any response until the time of going to press.

Apart from the two payment aggregators, around 20 firms were also under scrutiny for laundering the money involved in the scam, Tiwari said.

“We are investigating this and will soon refer these firms to the Enforcement Directorate for further action,” said Tiwari.

The special cell has also issued notices to popular social media influencers, including Abhishek Malhan, Elvish Yadav, Lakshay Choudhary, and Purav Jha, among others, to join the investigation regarding their alleged roles in promoting the fraudulent platform.

“Many victims were drawn in through the promotion of the app by popular social media influencers and YouTubers,” said IFSO.

The Delhi Police have clubbed around 127 complaints against the Hibox app and have arrested the main accused, recovering Rs 18 crore from four bank accounts.

"The merchant in reference is proactively blocked by Easebuzz platform in the month of July 2024 itself prior to the investigation by authorities. Moreover, Easebuzz has filed the Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) under the Financial Intelligence Unit, India (FIU) reporting norms immediately on receipt of our internal transaction monitoring system alerts in place and has blocked the merchant from transacting as per our company compliance policies. Further, Easebuzz is confident in its merchant onboarding and due diligence policy and necessary details of the merchant (KYC details, Transaction ledger and others documents) as required by the authorities have been duly submitted. Easebuzz ensures to remain compliant and cooperate with the authorities in the investigation process against the merchant," said Easebuzz spokesperson.