UP STF busts Rs 3,700-cr online trading scam which duped 7 lakh people

Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Thursday busted an alleged online trading scam worth over Rs 3,700 crore in which nearly seven lakh people were duped on the pretext of getting money in lieu of clicking on specific links.

STF detected the fraud by Noida-based Ablaze info solutions Private Limited which was operating through online portal https://bsmedia.business-standard.comsocialtrade.biz and later changed to http://frenzzup.com, a senior police official said here.

The Noida-based company's Director Anubhav Mittal, CEO Sridhar and technical head Mahesh Dayal were arrested and an FIR was lodged at Soorajpur police station in Noida, he said.

The task force has also sealed the bank accounts of the company, based in Sector 63 here, which had a total balance of Rs 500 crore, the STF's ASP Amit Pathak said.

The company used to lure gullible people by asking them to take their package from Rs 5,750 to Rs 57,500 and earn money by liking pages and clicking on the links they send.

"The company offers Rs 5 per like to investors and claims they used to get Rs 6 from the concerned companies for every like. However, the links sent to them were fake," he said.

During the probe, it was found that over 6.5 lakh people had deposited over Rs 3,726 crore in the company's accounts using over nine lakh ids.

The STF got a clue after investors started alleging that they were not getting the money after which a detailed probe was initiated.

STF said the company's director passed out of a B Tech course in computer science in 2010 and set up a company which earned Rs 3-4 lakh per annum till 2015 after which he floated socialtrade.biz online portal for the fraud.

STF has also informed the Reserve Bank of India, Income Tax department and the Securities and Exchange Board of India for further action in this regard.