EOW Freezes Rs 1.22 Crore Of Ponzi App Using Morphed Pics Bollywood Stars In Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing has frozen Rs 1.22 crore of a fake investment app which has been duping gullible investors on pretext of higher returns.
According to an EOW release, morphed pictures of leading Bollywood actors Akshay Kumar and Manish Paul were used in their advertisements to mislead and instil trust in the public. Investigation revealed that the fraudulent app had 1 lakh downloads in Google Play store. It claimed to be a professional financial trading and wealth management platform with different investment schemes with minimal deposit of Rs 100-20,000. The app was powered/developed by Perfect Trade.
Developed by Perfect Trade, the app morphed the pictures of leading Bollywood actors like Akshay Kumar and Manish Paul, in order to mislead and instil trust in the public.
The fraudulent app by the name Join trade is downloadable in Google Play store and has 1 Lakh Plus downloads, the EOW informed.
These mule accounts opened in the name of individuals and companies were maintained mainly in YES Bank , ICICI Bank , HDFC Bank and IDFC First Bank. Further inquiry revealed that the accounts were operated by the fraudsters mostly through internet banking.
Following the investigation, more than Rs 1.22 crore was frozen from these accounts. EOW has also written Google to remove the App from Google Play Store, it added.