In a major breakthrough, Haryana police, in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs’ cybersecurity team, arrested three individuals from Rohtak on Friday for their involvement in a large-scale investment scam that defrauded over 35,000 people across India. The accused, Johnny and Rohit, who were running two online companies—PCL and Money Earn 24—are accused of conning people out of Rs18 crore by promising lucrative returns on investments.
According to police reports, the fraudulent scheme operated by the duo targeted individuals by enticing them with the promise of high returns for completing simple online tasks, specifically captcha-solving. Interested individuals were asked to pay a registration fee of Rs5,000 to join the platform. Once registered, they were tasked with recruiting others into the scheme, who would also pay the registration fee.
The scheme falsely promised that those who recruited three others would start earning a profit. However, the reality was far from the promise. The accused paid small amounts to those who invested lesser amounts, but those who invested significant sums—sometimes in the lakhs—were defrauded without receiving any returns.
As part of the investigation, the police uncovered a vast network involving 1.40 lakh registrations, with a significant flow of money routed through various payment gateways to Udaipur and Patna. The police recovered key evidence, including a revolver, QR codes, bank cheques, computer systems, and copies of several bank accounts linked to the fraudulent operations.
