New Delhi, October 4
The Delhi Police Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit has summoned several social media influencers, comedian Bharti Singh and YouTuber Elvish Yadav for their alleged promotion of ‘Hibox’, an app used to execute investment scams to the tune of Rs 500 crores..
The Hibox app duped over 30,000 people were duped. The alleged scam came to light on August 16 when the IFSO received complaints from 29 people, who claimed they invested via the app on the pretext of 30% to 90% monthly returns. Investigation revealed that
IFSO arrested the main accused, J Sivaram (30), director of Hibox’s parent company, Sutrulla Express Private Limited. The firm’s accounts were allegedly used to move the cheated amount.
Ten influencers Saurav Joshi; Abhishek Malhan @ Fukra Insaan; Purav Jha; Elvish Yadav; Bharti Singh; Harsh Limbachiya; Lakshay Choudhary; Adarsh Singh; Amit @ Crazy XYZ; and Dilraj Singh Rawat @ Indian hacker were issued notices for allegedly influencing people to use the app.
The IFSO stated that these celebrities allegedly lured people through advertisements and promotional activities to invest their money in return for high profits.
DCP (IFSO) Hemant Tiwari said, “Hibox was launched in February 2024 but was developed since July 2023. The accused developed the backend, opened merchant accounts with Easebuzz and PhonePe, and opened front offices in Noida throughout 2023, before formally launching the app”.
He added, “After YouTubers and other influencers did promotional videos, the app started giving movements for investments. Initially, in five months, Hibox gave returns of 1% daily and 30% monthly with a block duration of 24 hours. the investors were also offered ‘magic’ boxes, which were virtual boxes with gifts worth the promised return. The investors could choose to have their investments either in the form of these gifts of the same value or cash. However, by July both gifts and investors’ money vanished into thin air. Hibox withheld payments to participants on some pretext or the other like technical glitches, legal issues, GST issues, etc.”
Besides, IFSO similar complaints were received at Northeast district’s cyber police station, where nine more people alleged being scammed by Hibox. 30 other complaints from the Northeast district, 35 complaints from the Outer district, 24 complaints from Shahdara District, and 488 complaints on the NCRP portal.
DCP Tiwari added that four of the accounts in which money was sent was traced to Sutrulla Express Private Limited, based in Washermenpet in Chennai. The offices in Chennai were raided, along with possible locations in Delhi. Sutrulla was incorporated in November 2016 by Sivaram. In December 2022, he allegedly came in contact with two Vietnamese individuals who allegedly helped develop the ‘India’ version of Hibox".
