The Uttar Pradesh police have arrested three persons alleged to have fooled almost 7 lakh people through an online portal ‘socialtrade.biz,’ after it busted an online fraud to the tune of Rs 3,700 crore. Three persons- Anubhav Mittal, Sridhar Prasad and Mahesh Dayal from Sector 63 in Noida were detained. Officials also held nearly Rs 500 crore from them.
Actually, the accused used to run a web portal called ‘socialtrade.biz.’ Here an investor was required to pay anything between Rs 5,750 to Rs 57,500 in the company’s account to become a member and earn Rs 5 per click.
The portal was launched in August 2015. It used to offer four different ‘packages’ to the investors to earn money. After paying the money, the investors were advised to like pages and click on the links they were showed.
The company claimed that it made Rs 6 for every click and provided Rs 5 of it to the investors. However, the links sent by the company were fake, said police.
The firm was listed under the name of Ablaze Info Solutions Pvt Ltd. in Noida. The accused used to frequently change the portal’s name. So far the firm cheated more than 6.5 lakh people, with gathering around Rs 3,700 crore, said police.
Anubhav Mittal, who is believed to be the key player, holds a B.Tech degree. He hails from Ghaziabad. Another accused Prasad is from Visakhapatnam while Dayal is from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. Apart from seizing Rs 500 crore from a bank, police have also grabbed documents including the balance sheet of the firm, list of directors and other representatives and list of investors.
