Odisha EOW busts fake trading app which duped 1 lakh of Rs 18 crore

BHUBANESWAR: The state economic offence wing (EOW) has uncovered a fraudulent financial trading app called 'Join trade Financial growth', created in Hong Kong and operating from Dubai, which duped one lakh Indian citizens of at least Rs 18 crore.
EOW inspector general Jay Narayan Pankaj on Thursday said the EOW managed to freeze Rs 1.2 crore lying in five bank accounts of the fraud app. The EOW has also written to Google, asking it to remove the app from Google Play Store.
The app falsely presented itself as a professional wealth management platform, allowing investment through the app between Rs 100 and Rs 20,000 at one go and promised hefty returns. More than one lakh people had downloaded it, Pankaj added. The EOW officer said the months-old app would credit returns on the investments in the depositors' virtual wallet. However, if anyone tried to withdraw that was not allowed. One can deposit the amount through UPI IDs reflected in the app which keeps changing constantly every minute.
The IDs were linked to savings bank and current accounts maintained in the name of many shell companies, firms and individual persons. The fraudsters used layering for transacting the ill-gotten money by transferring the bulk credit amount to further unknown accounts. The EOW so far scrutinized five bank accounts having total transactions of Rs 18.67 crore. Three mule accounts were maintained in the name of firms based in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Pankaj said the fraudulent app was trading with crypto currency with Indian traders, transferring them cash with around 2% commission and buying crypto currency from them for seamless movement of wealth. The Rs 1.2 crore frozen was the amount which was yet to be transferred through the crypto route, he said.
The EOW said the fraud app came to its notice while investigating other online frauds. "The investigators started a probe after they came across an online advertisement about it," Pankaj said. The investigators suspect the app was developed by the same group, which has duped people through other online modules.