First reported by PatrickPretty.com
The scam that was referred to "International MLM Fraud" is YOBSN, aka "Smart Media Technologies" (but also known as Social Media Technologies, Automatic Geek, and so on.)
Quoting from the BangalaruCityPolice's Facebook account:
The company claims to be headed by a "David Martin". NOBODY outside the company had ever seen him or heard from him, except allegedly calls and/or emails. This is very reminiscent of Moolah's demise in UK where the founder "Alex Green" basically disappeared, after leaving revelation that he had legally changed his name so nobody knew what he did before (several failed businesses) and he disappeared with 1.4 million worth of Dogecoins. It is also suspected that "David Martin" does not exist at all, and is a composite personality operated by the heads of this scheme to sound more Western, much like "Profitable Sunrise" ponzi, where "Roman Novak" is the reputed head. SEC and authorities all over the world have investigated and shut down this scam, and no trace of "Roman Novak" can be found, so it is more than likely that Roman Novak does not exist.
We shall see how the prosecution goes.
And a reminder to all... Stop believing in quick riches. It's a good way to lose money. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
CCB, Bengaluru City @CCBBangalore Busts INTERNATIONAL MLM Fraud which collected millions of $s and arrested New... http://t.co/J0g2LwHJK0
— BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) December 4, 2014The scam that was referred to "International MLM Fraud" is YOBSN, aka "Smart Media Technologies" (but also known as Social Media Technologies, Automatic Geek, and so on.)
Quoting from the BangalaruCityPolice's Facebook account:
On Dec. 3, “acting on a complaint received at the office of DCP Crime, CCB F&M squad raided Room No 225 of Hotel Capital, Raj Bhavan Road, where 4 accused persons were explaining, advertising & collecting enrollment fee from new victims of YOBSN SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK MLM fraud web based company ( hosted from US ) and run through a website www.socialmediatechnologies.com . . .New members are lured with promise of big money in USD $s by pushing the ‘CREATING YOUR OWN SOCIAL NETWORK’ tagline and encouraging members to bring in more members & growing their pyramid on the LEFT & RIGHT side.They advertise by saying that when a company like Facebook etc is making billions of $s from social network, why can’t you make money.This company runs a Web site called Smart Media Technologies. Any person can become a member by paying 8000 to 25000 INR as per their capacity. Then the person has to introduce Two persons (Left & Right member) to invest for which he would get 25% BONUS each as commission. As the pyramid grows, he would get more bonus. Each member is given a username/password and the commission earned & number of members introduced is meticulously accounted in the login itself. In fact, each user can see his pyramid and the amount of commission earned by it.
While the company claims to be based in the US, I was the first commenter on BehindMLM to find its link to India.CCB investigated the documents available with the accused persons and found that the ONLINE account of Miss Driver Denise has 2844 members in the Left Side and 29495 members on Right Side across the world, and she alone personally has collected around 50,00,00,000 INR worth enrollment.Most of ‘her’ members belong to :-> 2000 from US, 1700 from India, 28000 from Malaysia, 500 from New Zealand, 200 from Dubai, 100 from Pakistan. Her members In India, are distributed pan-India:-> 300 from Karnataka, 800 from Maharashtra, 100 from Delhi, 100 from Punjab, 300 from MP, 100 from Hyderabad.Md Kurram also has 2000 members in his tree & claims to have received 10000 $ as commission.
The company claims to be headed by a "David Martin". NOBODY outside the company had ever seen him or heard from him, except allegedly calls and/or emails. This is very reminiscent of Moolah's demise in UK where the founder "Alex Green" basically disappeared, after leaving revelation that he had legally changed his name so nobody knew what he did before (several failed businesses) and he disappeared with 1.4 million worth of Dogecoins. It is also suspected that "David Martin" does not exist at all, and is a composite personality operated by the heads of this scheme to sound more Western, much like "Profitable Sunrise" ponzi, where "Roman Novak" is the reputed head. SEC and authorities all over the world have investigated and shut down this scam, and no trace of "Roman Novak" can be found, so it is more than likely that Roman Novak does not exist.
We shall see how the prosecution goes.
And a reminder to all... Stop believing in quick riches. It's a good way to lose money. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
