Meet the Delhi fraudster who tricked over 6 lakh people and duped them of 3,700 cr

People, these days, are all about likes on whatever they put online and looking at the trend, a 26-year-old BTech graduate tricked more than 6 lakh people into giving him their money through a Ponzi scheme that promised big returns for hitting 'likes' online.

In a year, Anubhav Mittal's Social Trade perpetrated a fraud of Rs 3,700 crore. They use to operate through a maze of dubious URLs (online links) sent to phones of subscribers that they were asked to click. They would be links to Facebook or Twitter profiles of other subscribers. A fake server was set up where these links would terminate.

This fraud was exposed when Mittal and his two aides - 40-year-old Shridhar Prasad, an MBA, and 25-year-old Mahesh Dayal were arrested. They had floated a fake company called Ablaze Info Solutions Private Limited that operated from there.

The STF team that raided the office found 250 passports, purportedly of some high performers and employees of the fraudsters, who were to be rewarded with a trip to Australia.

The investigation also led police to Rs 520 crore deposited in 12 accounts of the company registered in Canara Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank and Axis Bank. The officials are investigating the company's balance sheet, investors' information, and bank accounts to which money was transferred.