Seven nabbed, police blow lid off Rs 10 crore ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ scam

Ingit Pratap Singh, deputy commissioner of police (south-west), said that while seven members of this gang have been arrested so far, two prime suspects —Devesh Lal and Sunny China, who started the scam — remain on the run and were supposedly based in Dubai at the moment.

The business of paid “like” and “share” of videos on social media platforms was misused by a gang to create an elaborate system of paid membership, in which thousands of social media users across the country were duped after being promised easy money, the Delhi Police said on Thursday, after arresting seven and busting the racket

The officer identified the alleged fake mobile application as LoveLike and their website as www.task4.in – both of which are now dysfunctional.

Ingit Pratap Singh, deputy commissioner of police (south-west), said that while seven members of this gang have been arrested so far, two prime suspects —Devesh Lal and Sunny China, who started the scam — remain on the run and were supposedly based in Dubai at the moment.

The DCP said that a trail of R10 crore in transactions made by this gang has been detected and 30 bank accounts frozen.

The officer identified the alleged fake mobile application as LoveLike and their website as www.task4.in – both of which are now dysfunctional.

Police said that the scam was designed in such a way that there were two memberships — one free, in which the members made little money and the second paid — which was much more lucrative but came at a price.

“The free members were given three videos every day to like and share. Each video fetched them Rs 6. That way, in a month a free member could make R540. A free member didn’t have the option to create multiple accounts,” said an investigator..

But people with paid memberships were promised limitless earnings. The “advanced” membership cost R10,000 and once purchased the members were offered 39 such videos daily and paid Rs 13 per like and share. This brought them Rs 15,210 a month. The highest membership category— titled “Super”— came at a price of Rs 50,000 and offered users 125 videos to like and share every day, paying them R25 per video. The users stood to make Rs 93,750 monthly under the Super membership.

“What lured the paid members was the option to create multiple accounts. Many even involved their families. One complainant had invested R5 lakh by involving seven of her relatives. People did not complain, since they had to spend so little time on their phones to like and share these videos,” said the officer.

What made the scheme appear even more lucrative was that members were promised up to 15% of the earnings of every new member that they brought in.

THE CRIME

But the videos being sent out to members weren’t being procured from any firm or organisation looking to grow, the officer said. “These were random videos picked up from social media sites. The aim was to lure people to invest money,” said the officer.

To lure people, the gang first roped in unsuspecting but influential Youtubers to promote their scheme, the officer said. The existing members were also promised handsome incentives for each new member they roped in. “The gang actually paid to the first few members in the early days, to build trust. But when they had collected enough money, they stopped paying and fled,” the officer said.

“The crime came to police’s notice on December 8, when one of the victims reached out to Delhi Police on Twitter, after which the south-west district police launched a probe,” said Amit Goyal, additional DCP. The alleged scam had left a big online footprint that the police used to carry out raids in Gurgaon and arrest seven alleged members of the gang.

Since thousands of such victims are suspected to be there, Abhinendra Jain, assistant commissioner of police (operations), said that investigators are now reaching out to cyber cells across Delhi to collate all such cases against these alleged racketeers.