A massive fraud is underway through social media, aiming to deceive gullible Indians of their hard-earned savings. The modus operandi of these fly-by-night operators is to exploit the words of industrialist Ratan Tata and corporate wizards NR Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani, who are allegedly endorsing a business proposal by a company called BTC Ai Evex. This company claims to be an automated trading platform aimed at improving the lives of regular Indians.
Vijay Mohan Valiathan, a leading chartered accountant in Kerala, told The Pioneer that the entire operation reeks of a major financial scam and deceit.
The company, BTC Ai Evex, in advertisements disguised as news reports, quotes Narayana Murthy addressing an investors’ meeting (with the date and place of the meeting remaining a mystery) and attributes to him the statement: “BTC Ai Evex is our brainchild, offering substantial earning potential for countless Indians.”
The advertisement, presenting itself as a news report, claims that the publication featuring the news decided to revisit a few details related to investing on Narayana Murthy’s platform and contacted the entrepreneur on the same day. The dubious report posted on the portal of a leading newspaper based in New Delhi states, “Before doing so, we agreed that we were entitled to publish an interview for our publication. So now readers can listen to our call with exclusive information.”
“We began creating an account on the official BTC Ai Evex website. The process, taking a mere 90 seconds, revealed a reduced minimum deposit, confirming Murthy’s claims. With `21,000 deposited, our video operator Rahul Kumar was promptly assigned a personal manager who provided insights, even during the late evening hours.
“The following day witnessed a surge in our balance to `32,385, a revelation that left our team astounded. Engaging our personal manager, we delved into understanding BTC Ai Evex operations. Bolstered by this confidence, we tested the platform’s withdrawal process, successfully transferring funds to our video operator Rahul Kumar’s bank account within minutes. The statement of accounts issued by the public sector Bank of India has been posted to substantiate their claim.
“Our internal investigation unequivocally affirms BTC Ai Evex authenticity. Without any prior trading experience, our team effortlessly accrued `23,886 in three days,” claims the so-called news report.
“Key advantages include accessibility, simplicity, responsive client support, minimal risk, and unwavering trustworthiness,” claims the so-called news report.
Two questions remain unanswered. If individuals of the calibre of Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy, and Nandan Nilekani were to make claims like this, it would make national headlines, but no mainstream media has carried the claims by these celebrities. Similarly, any system developed by Infosys that could make people rich overnight would have made national headlines.
The audio recording posted on the portal has many inherent flaws.
While attempting to register with BTC Ai Evex, this writer was redirected to X Pro Market, a completely unfamiliar company. Although the effort to register with the company did not succeed, the prospective investor received at least two dosen phone calls from numbers registered in the United Kingdom, urging to expedite the registration process and invest the first installment of Rs 24,000 at the earliest.
The numbers from where the calls were made include +447906606964, +447985645229, +447983292634, etc. Interestingly, their supposed support center is in Turkey, from where a person (probably a Keralite, as per his accent) called, urging to speed up the payment. All these international calls aimed to persuade the investor to part with Rs 24,000, revealing their ulterior motive.
This is the first time in the history of India that names of top industrialists and corporate barons are being used to convince investors about the “seriousness” behind a company’s investment potential.
