The Delhi Police fined five people, including YouTuber Elvish Yadav and comedian Bharti Singh, for Rs. 500 crore app-based fraud summons. The police received more than 500 complaints alleging that several social media influencers and YouTubers promoted the HIBOX mobile app on their pages and lured people to invest through the app.
The police said that the main accused in this scam, Shivaram (30), a resident of Chennai, has been arrested. According to the complaint, social media influencers and YouTubers including Saurav Joshi, Abhishek Malhan, Purav Jha, Elvish Yadav, Bharti Singh, Harsh Limbachia, Lakshya Chaudhary, Adarsh Singh, Amit and Dilraj Singh Rawat promoted the app and encouraged people to invest through the app. were
Social media influencers and YouTubers promoted the app and encouraged people to invest through the app
Huge return in first five months Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO Special Cell) Hemant Tiwari said, HIBOX is a mobile application, which is part of a well-planned scam. The DCP said that through this application, the accused promised compensation of one to five per cent per day, which amounted to 30 to 90 per cent in a month. This app was launched in February 2024. More than 30,000 people invested in this app. Investors have got good returns in the first five months.
Payment closed from July However, since July the app stopped payments citing technical glitches, legal issues, GST issues etc. DCP Tiwari said the said companies disappeared after closing their offices in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Mastermind Shivaram has been arrested and Rs 18 crore seized from his four different bank accounts.
The FIR was registered in August On August 16, the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) police received complaints from 29 victims against the HIBOX app. The complainants alleged that they were promised high returns on their investment. On August 20, the Special Cell registered an FIR under various sections of the Indian Judicial Code and relevant provisions of the IT Act.
People complained from different places Several complaints were filed against the HIBOX application by nine people from the northeastern districts. Who were duped in the same way. These nine cases were transferred to IFSO. Police have received more than 500 complaints from Northeast District, Outer District, Shahdara and NCRP portal.
DCP said, 'Our team has collected payment gateway and bank account details associated with the fraud. Analysis of the transactions helped the team identify four accounts that were used to withdraw the fraudulent funds. Police said, 127 complaints have been collected together and the role of EASEBUZZ and PhonePe is being investigated.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
