7 lakh people duped of Rs 3,700 crore by Noida-based firm in 'social trade', 3 arrested

NOIDA: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force busted a gang of fraudsters who allegedly cheated seven lakh people to the tune of Rs 3,700 crore through an online trading site socialtrade.biz. The task force has also sealed the bank accounts of the company, based in Sector 63, which had a total balance of Rs 500 crore, the Special Task Force's ASP Amit Pathak said. The accused duped people on pretext of providing digital marketing solutions and had collected money from as many as seven lakh people under this ponzi scheme, he said. The arrested accused included the company owner Abhinav Mittal and his two accomplices -- Shridhar Prasad and Mahesh Dayal, he added. 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, said. 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. Some of the members had complained against the company at Noida Phase 3 and Surajpur police stations in Greater Noida following which action was taken, the ASP said.