'Social trade' scam: How 7 lakh people duped of Rs 3,700 cr by Noida-based firm in online fraud

NOIDA: UP Special Task Force has busted a gang of fraudsters, who through an online portal ‘socialtrade.biz’ allegedly duped nearly 7 lakh people of Rs 3,700 crore. The 'investors' were cheated under a scheme named Social Trade. The online fraud was unearthed when a team of STF raided the office of a Noida-based 3W Digital Private Limited in sector 63 on Wednesday. The company’s Director Anubhav Mittal and his two accomplices --Shridhar Prasad and Mahesh Dayal, were arrested by a UP Police’s Special Task Force (STF) after complaints were registered against the company at Noida Phase 3 and Surajpur police stations in Greater Noida. According to police, the accused duped people on pretext of providing digital marketing solutions and had collected money from as many as 7 lakh people under this ponzi scheme. 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. ALSO READ: Punjab Assembly election LIVE: Gen JJ Singh SAD candidate against Congress' Amarinder Singh casts his vote The portal was launched in August 2015 and 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, police said. The firm was registered under the name of Ablaze Info Solutions Pvt Ltd. in Noida and the accused used to constantly change the portal’s name. ALSO READ: Goa Assembly election LIVE: Manohar Parrikar casts his vote Anubhav Mittal, who is 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. (With inputs from agencies)