Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Crime Branch has frozen Rs 75 lakh in 14 different bank accounts during a crackdown against illegal online ponzi schemes and earning apps, which used morphed photographs of celebrities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Mukesh Abani and Sachin Tendulkar, for promotion.
According to an EOW release, these bank accounts were linked to apps like Dice, Quickwrummy, Fly Aviator, Weonlinepro Three, MVP trader, Ft11, UNO, ForexDana, Live 22 cash, Aviator X, City5, Homer Alexander etc. Together, these apps had over 1.56 crore downloads. The scamsters were using the morphed photographs of celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Sachin Tendulkar and Technical Guruji. Some ‘social media influencers’, and TV stars/ celebrities were also promoting/ endorsing these online ponzi apps. They also used the logo of popular companies like Tata to mislead/ impress people on various social media platforms.
During investigation, the EOW found that the amount could only be deposited through UPI IDs reflected in the apps, which kept changing constantly and were linked to bank accounts maintained in the name of many shell companies and individuals. The total transactions in the bank accounts was found to be to the tune of over Rs 1000 crore. It is suspected that these accounts were also used in other cyber/ financial crimes related to online ponzi schemes, illegal digital loan apps, courier scam, sextortion, work from home scam, YouTube liking scam and rating scam.
The agency said that the money was routed through very complex multi layering of various mule accounts and finally transferred out of India using crypto trade. Most of these scams were operated from or have links in Dubai, UAE, it added.
Earlier, an app – Join trade – Financial growth – was found using the morphed pictures of leading Bollywood actors like Akshay Kumar and Manish Paul to mislead and instil trust among people. The EOW had also frozen Rs 1.22 crore in similar schemes and apps, which misled people by running advertisement to multiply money within a few days.
Advisory to people
1. Please don’t use these illegal earning apps/scheme. These apps are created and operated by Cyber-Financial scammers. Even if you initially get some money back ultimately you will lose huge money.
2. Please do not refer/ forward the links to your friend/ relatives. You might get some referral bonus but in the end, both you and your friends will lose huge amount of money.
3. It is quite possible that this money is being used in other cyber-crime and anti-national activities. Please stay away from such Apps/ schemes.
4. Never ever allow your bank accounts to be used/ controlled by others.
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