The anatomy of an e-commerce scam
MLM scam, disguised as an online point of sale, stole around 50 crore Tk from 25,000 people in Rajbari, Pabna and surrounding districts
In early November, the company’s headquarters were cordoned off by the local administration while its executives went into hiding. Photo: Masum Billah.
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In early November, the company’s headquarters were cordoned off by the local administration while its executives went into hiding. Photo: Masum Billah.
A dozen people gathered on the second floor of the Nannu Tower in Panna Chattar, Rajbari.
On the third floor of the building is the office of Jeka Bazar – a so-called “electronic commerce” company where these people had “invested” their money. On November 2, the company’s headquarters were cordoned off by the local administration while its executives went into hiding.
The people who gathered this Sunday, November 14, were eager to get back the money they had invested in Jeka Bazar in the hopes of “making money by watching online advertisements.”
Jeka Bazar promised them that if they invest a little more than Tk1 lakh, they could earn around Tk30,000 per month by clicking on certain ads on their website through the registered login credentials.
The crowd was angry. When I introduced myself as a reporter, one of the men said, “Can you help us get our bills? You can not !
Moreover, they were also reluctant to speak to a reporter as they feared the newspapers would say “negative” things about Jeka Bazar and, in fact, ruin any hope for the company to come back and pay its monthly bills. .
“Many of us will have no choice but to end our life if we don’t get our money back,” said retired soldier Lokman, who had invested nearly 8 lakh Tk in Jeka. Bazaar.
“They showed me a lot of documents to gain my trust and make me believe they were a legitimate e-commerce business,†Lokman said. “If possible, help us get our bills,†he sounded desperate, especially since he had invested about a month before the company closed in early November. And so, he couldn’t even make a lot of money in the monthly payment format by watching ads.
Jeka Bazar, from the look of its website, clearly comes across as an e-commerce business. There is a myriad of products featured on their website.
When we are convinced that it is a beautiful e-commerce site, we click on their products. Interestingly, everything is written in Latin. Other than the product photo, there is no way to understand from their cryptic descriptions and specifications what these products are.
Jeka Bazar promised them that if they invest a little more than Tk1 lakh, they could earn around Tk30,000 per month by clicking on certain ads on their website through the registered login credentials.
For example, let’s say you clicked to buy a router. The name of the product in Latin says: “Officiis nobis tempore est rerum perspiciatis molestiae ad.”
We used Google Translate to translate the name of the product. The result? Some weird phrases like, “It’s time for us to face business difficulties.” ”
Plus, the product descriptions were even more unusual. The router description read as “You can’t help it being so easy. But we consider any choice or condemn anyone. Some, if not most, headaches …” and it continues .
Unsurprisingly, the price of these routers was ridiculously low at Tk 357.15.
The router is one of many examples of products shown in this way on their website. In fact, most of the products are presented this way, which makes it hard to believe that they were actually selling anything online.
Although they had products in their offices to maintain the facade of an “e-commerce” business, the aspect of selling products online was just eye drops to rip off ordinary people.
In early November, the local Rajbari administration sealed her office only because it discovered problems with the products she had in her office.
But the irony is that this is by no means the subject of Jeka Bazar.
Photo: Masum Billah
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Photo: Masum Billah
Particularities of the scam
The revenue system devised by the crafty brains of this company involved getting people to watch ads on their site through the login credentials they were selling and promising to pay every ID from Tk6 to Tk8 for watching the screen for 30 seconds.
After contacting a few dozen deceived “investors”, The Business Standard learned that Jeka Bazar sold each ID for 1,300 Tk and paid those ID holders – to watch just one ad per day – up to 240 Tk per month.
After investigating some of the IDs, TBS discovered that they were showing two different ads (the ads just as bizarre as their products) on multiple occasions; and after an ID looks at it for 30 seconds, Jeka pays Tk8, which they can get at the end of the month through a cell phone or regular banking system.
When you purchase such ID, Jeka will call you a promoter. And the more IDs you buy, the more attractive the packages become.
Located at the district level and operating mainly in the villages, the people behind Jeka Bazar have been very smart in distancing themselves from the term “MLM†(multilevel marketing), although that is exactly the purpose of their online scam.
How? ‘Or’ What? Suppose you bought 100 pieces of ID from them by “investing” in Tk1 lakh. Now there are “hands A, B and C†packages that appeal to you. The word “main” should already remind you of the days of Destiny.
But unlike the Destiny MLM group, Jeka Bazar didn’t ask you to bring in more people. They demanded that for each of your hands A, B and C, if you completed 150 ID (total 450 ID), you could get a special bonus of 50,000 Tk!
So, how much does Jeka Bazar earn by selling 450 pieces of ID? 585,000 Tk!
When Consumer Rights closed Jeka’s stores for fake advertisements and degraded products, they also fined the company for violating “Articles 37 and 44 of the Consumer Rights Protection Act.” said Shoriful Islam, deputy director of the National Consumer Rights Protection Directorate, Rajbari.
However, they are not unaware of the MLM structure of the business. “They said it was a benchmark income, even though it looked suspiciously like an MLM. Instead of right-handed and left-handed systems, they were using a different model,†Islam said.
“According to the 2021 Digital Commerce Operating Guidelines, operating an MLM business online is prohibited. In addition, making money by watching an advertisement is misleading,” he added.
The consumer rights officer added that the last people to join these companies were usually the ones who were most affected. “Suppose 1 lakh of people had already been scammed, if they could have kept running for three more months that number would have increased to 20 lakhs of people.”
We asked Islam for the exact figure of the number of people who had invested in Jeka Bazaar. “We don’t have an exact number. It is beyond the responsibilities of our department.”
However, he cited an intelligence report which estimated the number of Jeka Bazar “promoters†– the people who invested money to buy IDs – at around 25,000.
“There are people among these promoters who alone have invested up to Tk 20 lakh. If we count one lakh on average, the total amount invested here could exceed Tk 250 crore,†Islam added.
However, since not everyone invested more than Tk1 lakh, Islam said, “Rumor has it that the actual figure could be around Tk50 crore.”
In response to The Business Standard’s question about the alleged amount Jeka Bazar potentially raised through his online MLM scam, Dilshad Begum, Assistant Commissioner (DC) of Rajbari District said, “Regarding the amount you have mentioned, we have not yet received any such allegations. . ”
“No aggrieved person has come to see us. Affected customers have not yet filed their complaints with us. Also, I have no information on whether they have also filed complaints in the thana. Since consumer rights take care of it, let’s see what can be done according to their laws. We will also see if anyone complains, “the DC said.
However, the consumer rights officer said, “We don’t have a mechanism in place to get their money back (from the promoters).”
He said the best he can do is advise victims to file a criminal complaint or make it clear to the authorities concerned that they have been deceived.
But what about the promoters? Would the aggrieved “investors” who gathered at the Nannu Tower do so?
“Please help us get the bill for a month. I have nowhere to go,” pleaded a visibly desperate promoter to this reporter.
Several attempts were made to contact the owners of Jeka Bazar for comment. However, most of their contact phone numbers were off, while a few did not answer.