“Invest in this scheme and you will get 1% return daily.”
Daily?
“Yes, so no risk of losing and you can grow your money easily.” What if your favorite influencer or top-notch influencer promotes this?
You will think of investing in such a scheme without any second thought, Right?
This is the tactic that the scammer used in this case. He approached famous influencers and got the promotion of his app through their channel.
As a result people started investing huge sums of money depositing crores of capital in the scammer’s account.
Let’s tell you the whole case in detail.
So, this is about a company Fin-Box (name changed). Fin-Box is the company based outside India and provide its services through a mobile application. Now to proceed with their evil plan, they appointed one direction in India so that they can gain trust of people through their local presence.
The business model was also straightforward, in which they ask investors to invest money and earn a guaranteed return of 1% per day. They gained a little traction on the Play Store from where they succeeded in getting money from investors.
Not only this, to gain credibility, they showed good returns to people who invested.
Then they played a second round, where they approached some of the leading influencers of India to promote their app in their videos. After this, the app’s reach expanded rapidly and they were able to get the amount of around ₹50 crores from all the corners of the nation.
The first shock the investors got when some of the investors attempted to withdraw their capital.
Instead of smooth transactions, the withdrawal failed. The panic among investors increased when more and more people reported the same concern.
This made them realize that they had been scammed. With the increasing reports of the case, the future transactions were prevented by blocking the payment gateway link.
However, the scammer by then had already fled away with around 40% of the invested capital.
Investment & trading Scams like these leave behind nothing but a few lesson for investors;
- Following high returns without verification & validation leads is the first step towards losing hard-earned money.
- Influencers are a great source of information but following them blindly can lead to big losses.
- Last but not the least, the greed to become rich easily. This is something that makes it easier for scammers to loot people.
Above incidence is a tragic example of how greed can create a perfect storm of financial ruin. For those who lost money, the consequences were devastating.
For the rest of us, it’s a reminder to make an investment decision by doing proper research & validation. In a world where scams are becoming increasing at faster pace, the best defense is knowledge, caution, and a commitment to proper analysis.
