Delhi: Police bust online investment racket on social media site

Police said the online investment racket named “Profit_Mania” was being run on a social media site. The police said videos of some social media celebrities/influencers promoting the investment scheme were also uploaded on the social media account of the phoney scheme

New Delhi: The cyber cell unit (CyPAD) of Delhi Police on Sunday said they have busted an online investment fraud named “Profit_Mania”, and arrested a 44-year-old man for allegedly running the racket on a social media site along with his wife and a minor boy, who has also been apprehended in the case.

The cyber cell unit (CyPAD) of Delhi Police on Sunday said they have busted an online investment fraud named “Profit_Mania”, that was being run on a social media site. (HT Photo)

The woman was bound down in the case, meaning she was apprehended by police file but released with directions to remain present whenever called for investigation, CyPAD officers said.

The police said videos of some social media celebrities/influencers promoting the investment scheme were also uploaded on the social media account of the phoney scheme by the racketeers to increase the reach, and to attract investors. The police have identified the social media influencers, who may be asked to explain under what circumstances they agreed to make the promotional videos in favour of the fraudulent investment module, the CyPAD officials associated with the case said.

“We have also seized over ₹12 lakh that was credited into the account of the fraudsters as investments by various people in the last some months. The racket was running for the past two years. We assume that the numbers of investors may be in hundreds. So far, we have identified and approached four investors. More victims of the fraud are being identified,” said deputy commissioner of police (CyPAD) KPS Malhotra.

“The cheats induced people by offering to double their invested money within a week. They shared UPI IDs or QR codes to the investors for making the investments. However, once the money was transferred to the racketeers’ account, they stopped responding to the investor’s calls or messages,” said an investigator.

DCP Malhotra said that one of the investors, who was duped of ₹40,000 in January this year, filed a complaint in July and on that basis a cheating case was registered. The complainant alleged that he was surfing on the social media account, when he came across a page titled “Profit_Mania”. The page had screenshots of people conducting binary trading with the company and earning profits.

A binary option is an option that either pays a fixed monetary amount or nothing at all.

“The complaint chatted with the account holder, who introduced himself as Deepak Sahu and induced him to invest in the scheme that will increase his investment by three times in no time. He was tricked into scanning a QR code for making the investment. Thereafter, the account holder stopped responding to his messages,” added Malhotra.

During the probe, he said, details of the beneficiary of the bank account in which the money was transferred were collected and the suspect was identified as Devendra Choudhary, a resident of Baran in Rajasthan. Over ₹12 lakh was found credited by various people to the account that was opened in the name of a 17-year-old boy, who later turned out to be the racket’s mastermind. Chaudhary’s wife was also a part of it.

“We arrested Chaudhary while the juvenile was apprehended,” said the DCP, advising the general public not to fall prey to any online investment schemes blindfolded even if they were endorsed by social media influencers.

The DCP has also advised social media influencers to desist from promoting such schemes without verifying its authenticity, by saying that “inducement to cheating is an offence punishable under Ineidn Penal Code.”