HIBOX App Scam Busted: Man Held For Defrauding 30K People

The Delhi Police has arrested a 30-year-old man, who they suspect to have defrauded over 30,000 people to the tune of INR 500 Cr (around $60 Mn)

As per TOI, the perpetrator lured his victims into investing in the HIBOX mobile application, promising exorbitant daily returns.

The scam swelled when familiar social media influencers also endorsed the same on their channels and pages, who are now summoned by the cops, the report said.

The suspect was identified as J Sivaram and hails from Chennai. The cops received complaints from 29 people against the application in August.

During the investigation, one of the police sources said, “We found that the accused used e-wallets for the transfer of money,” adding that the investigators found four accounts to which the cheated money was transferred.

The cops have also seized INR 18 Cr from four of his bank accounts, which were registered in the name of a company he worked as a director with, the report said.

Police further said that these people were lured into making the investment of guaranteed returns of 1% to 5% daily, amounting to 30% to monthly 90%.

Additionally, the report said, the cops later received 89 complaints only from Delhi, and 488 complaints were discovered to be linked to the case on the National Cybercrime reporting Portal (NCRP). A case was thus registered.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Hemant Tiwari confirmed to the report that notices have been issued to YouTubers and social media influencers Abhishek Malhan alias Fukra Insaan, Elvish Yadav, Lakshay Choudhary and Purav Jha to join the investigation.

This comes at a time when online fraud has become extremely difficult to identify or control. The possibility of not falling to the traps set by scammers are growing thin, with the rising adoption of digitization of the country.

Based on the recent Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) annual report for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), the number of online frauds in the country surged 334% year-on-year (YoY) to 29,082, and it covered instances involving cards and the internet. 

Over a week ago, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also made an arrest of four persons for their alleged involvement in a scam carried out via online gaming application ‘Fiewin’ to defraud users to the tune of over INR 400 Cr (around $47.6 Mn).