Various online money earning platforms are doing scam to people with the help of mobile banking platforms. Currently there are hundreds of fake online platforms like ENBM, Badsha, 3i.com, HZRT, Phd, and Adswords.us doing business by using mobile banking services.
Most of the scams use B-kash and Nagad to collect money from customers through 'One Pay' as payment gateway.
These scam companies recruit young and unemployed people as agents by opening groups through various social media platforms including Telegram and WhatsApp by using foreign numbers. They offer lucrative salary scheme and security of payment to use them to achieve their goals.
Apart from social media groups, these apps are also promoted by lucrative earning videos on YouTube. These videos also provide detailed information on how to operate the app.
Agent recruiting process begins with those who have added most active members for their individual platforms. These apps are built in such way, by adding more members through referrals a part of incentive will be automatically added to the accounts as profit.
Agents are tasked to create credibility of the company in the group and providing information when someone inquires about the company's recent offers and activities.
No agent has a clear vision from where or which account that he will get his salary. Employees are paid through mobile banking as long as the company is operating as same as the customers.
Recently, thousands of people in the country have been cheated by using an app operated from Hong Kong, later it is known as Chinese company called 'eMovie Plan Plus'. On February 13 the company ran away with huge amount of money from locals.
Emovie plan Plus offers people to open an account number with a minimum deposit of Tk 2,000 in the hope that this investment will be doubled in a month. Due to this immense profit, people of all ages, including unemployed young, teenagers and old people in cities and in remote areas, became users by opening accounts in this app. Even government and private company employees became customers soon after the company's publicity.
For four to five month customers have also withdrawn money from this app. From the last week of January users mostly fall into their trap with so many profitable offers which will increase their profit up to 360 percent and people started investing hundreds of thousands into it. The customers realized the activity of the company as scam as the money withdrawal from app permanently stopped.
To make E-Movie Plan credible to users, a conference was held with influential customers and big investors were invited to join from all over the country at a five-star hotel in city, Dhaka Regency Hotel and Resort on January 7. It was found that three men and an woman, who claimed themselves as Vice President of the company, Asian country director and public relations offices, from Hong Kong attended the meeting.
Brian John and Mr Michael introduced themselves as Vice Presidents of E-Movie Plan. This Michael used to come live from the verified official Facebook page of E-Movie Plan from time to time with various investment plans for customers to increase their profit margin.
A guy called, Musabir, a local partner of eMovieplan made all the arrangements of the event. Everyone now suspects him to be the local master mind of the scam.
Regarding this official of Dhaka Regency Hotel and Resort told the media that a Singaporean business group contacted them through e-mail to book a hall in the name of e-movie plan. The Regency official declined to say more due to their business policy.
Many other companies like eMovie Plan are still taking money from people in advance with the commitment to pay with benefit and then run away. But these fraudsters have never been caught as they do not exist in reality. They only live virtually to scam people.
An emovieplan plus agent told to this correspondent that "I agreed to become an agent after attending their meeting in city. They confirmed that the company is working on to legalise the platform by fulfilling all the requirements of the country. Made a promise to eMovie customer care representatives with an agreed salary of Tk 20,000 will be paid on the 25th of each month as office expenses apart from the rent of the place."
He also said, "e-Movie Plan used the local image to get away with their plan and claimed he lost everything with his reputation. Now people came looking for me from various places who invested as the company run away within a month."
A victim of e-movieplan Plus Babu said, "He gave his agent Tk 50,000 to deposit in his account. The money gets into his account within hours and he buys movie tickets with that money and starts making good profit. He also managed to withdraw his profit money but it was not the same as he invested."
According to reports, the country's customers and representatives used Binance to send money and receive money from the company. Dollars were bought through mobile banking on Binance and those dollars were transferred to eMovie plans designated paying address.
eMovie Plan customers rarely transacted through agents due to the availability of mobile banking transaction process. Only if the amount is more than Tk 25,000, it was deposited through the agents.
Because, one can only transfer Tk 25,000 by using his personal mobile banking account in a day.
Currently there are hundreds of fake online companies like ENBM, Badsha, 3i.com, HZRT, Phd, and AdsWords.us. If government does not take necessary action immediately against these scam companies, they will leave soon after embezzling a huge amount of money.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Director General (Systems and Services Division) Brig Gen Md Nasim Parvez said, "We do not close any online site. We can stop it if law enforcement or any agency recommends it to us. If there is any recommendation to stop the e-movie plan, then we will take action accordingly."
