This Ponzi con offered discount on two-wheelers

Gurgaon: Police on Monday busted a Ponzi scheme, in which a person was allegedly cheating people by promising to give a two-wheeler for a 30% discount and regular monthly returns, against putting up an advertisement sticker of an international oil firm on the vehicle for six months.
The accused had cheated 57 people within 15 days of launching his scam.
Gurpreet Singh (32) of Punjabi Bagh in Delhi was hoping to quickly collect a large amount of money from unsuspecting people and wind up. When arrested, police recovered Rs 1.14 lakh and several stickers from his possession.
The arrest was precipitated by a police complaint, filed by Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited on June 1 at Palam Vihar police station, alleging that a company was offering discounts on purchase of bikes and scooters with MRP up to Rs 1 lakh, against putting up a sticker of the company. The company said they don’t have any such scheme and people are being cheated in its name. On the basis of this complaint, a case was registered on June 2 under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of IPC.
The probe revealed that a company — ADD HUB, operating from Old Delhi Road — was offering this scheme to cheat people. On Sunday, police raided its office and arrested Gurpreet. He was produced before court and sent to two-day police remand.
Singh, a Class XII pass, was selling and repairing air-conditioners before opening the office of ADD HUB with 10 employees, all of whom were given phone number lists to target clients. They had launched the scheme on May 13, and till they got caught, had ensnared 57 customers. Explaining their modus operandi, police said the accused used to place advertisements of ‘EMI Free Bike’ in newspapers on weekends to lure people. Under the scheme, they offered a two-wheeler at 30% discount if the customer agreed to put up a sticker of Gulf Oil on it for six months, by accepting 70% of MRP as down payment at the time of booking. If the customer continued to carry the sticker after six months, they were promised Rs 1,750 per month for the next year. Once this period was completed, if customers still carried the sticker, they were promised Rs 2,100 per month for another 18 months, after paying Rs 4,500.
“Their scheme was so lucrative that 57 people had already fallen for it in 15 days,” said police spokesperson Subhash Bokan, adding the first client was registered on May 15, after which, booking numbers rose with each passing day. To win the confidence of people, they had bought some two-wheelers, got them registered in the names of customers, and handed them over to the first few customers.
They had also displayed a fake GST number in their office. “Within a month, people were coming to book two-wheelers,” said the officer, adding the accused was planning to wind up the operation soon.