Office of another social trading firm sealed in Noida, police hunt for directors

The sector 2 office of Webwork Trade Links Pvt Limited — an online social trading company that is being investigated for allegedly duping thousands of investors — was sealed on Wednesday by a cyber crime team of Noida police. Police suspect that the company worked on the lines of Ablaze Info Solutions Private Limited and paid people Rs 6 per like on published advertising content on social media.

The sector 2 office of Webwork Trade Links Pvt Limited — an online social trading company that is being investigated for allegedly duping thousands of investors — was sealed on Wednesday by a cyber crime team of Noida police.

Noida police officers come out after sealing the sector 2 office of Webwork Trade Links Pvt Limited — an online social trading company that is being investigated for allegedly duping thousands of investors — on Wednesday. (Sunil Ghosh/ HT photo)

Police suspect that the company worked on the lines of Ablaze Info Solutions Private Limited and paid people Rs 6 per like on published advertising content on social media.

Superintendent of police (city) Dinesh Yadav, who is also the head of cyber crimes division, said a team sealed the premises of the Webwork in sector 2. “Besides sealing the office, the team was asked to collect and evidence to help investigate the matter further,” he said.

According to an official in the cyber crimes team, the main building of the office was sealed while the campus remained under guard by private watchmen. “There were no employees present in the office on Wednesday. Nearly 20 people were found standing outside the Webwork building when the team stormed into the office of the online social trading company. However, none of them protested the police action,” said an officer.

“The residential addresses of the Webwork directors and officials are in Delhi and Meerut. The phone numbers active at those locations are being put under surveillance to trace the two directors,” said Yadav.

The lid was blown off the alleged ponzi scheme when AK Jain, an insurance agent from Ghaziabad, complained to the police about the alleged cheating by Webwork. “The complainant had come to us on February 9. Since poll parties were leaving on February 10 and the polling was held on February 11, we were all busy with that. The FIR was lodged on February 12. But in the meantime, Jain went to town about it and gave interviews to some TV channels. This alerted the accused and they went into hiding. Otherwise, we would have had them by now,” said Yadav.

Meanwhile, HT found that the website of Webwork had put up a public notice in Hindi on its website assuring advertisers that their licences were secured. “Post change in the banking system, there has been disruption in the online working of the company. As a result, the company is compelled to suspend its permanent work till April 20. The advertisers are assured that their licences, payments made by them and their returns are safe and the company is committed to that,” the notice read.