TheGML.com is luring gullible people by promising to pay about Rs35,000 every month just by filling online surveys and clicking on the ad links in the email. Is this another Speak Asia in the making?
While the duped panellists of Speak Asia are still tapping several doors for refund of their money, here is another company, “The Great Money Lab” or thegml.com, which is luring gullible people with similar promises, albeit with a small joining fee and lower pay out.
Srikakulam (Andhra Pradesh) based, “The Great Money Lab” or thegml.com is sending SMS (unsolicited messages, in fact) to several people for earning easy money. Here is a first person account from one of the readers of Moneylife...
“I have received a SMS from an unknown source for making easy money with guarantee of payment on stamp paper. They have given the site address www.thegml.com, which I have visited. The full name is Great Money Lab. To me it appears to be another looting scheme where the gullible will fall for it, as the amount demanded is only Rs525 as registration fees. Ostensibly it is an internet survey work that is being promised,” the reader said.
The site thegml.com even quotes from an article published by the Times of India in its Ascent supplement. It says, “An article published in a leading English newspaper (Times of India) describes how thousands of internet users in India are earning money just by clicking web links.”
However, this claim is misleading. The article does not say anything about earning money just by clicking web links. In fact, the article says that professionals are using a flexible working scheme (like using laptop on the move) to break free from their desks and desktops.
The portal offers two ways to earn easy money after you pay them a total of Rs525—Rs499 plus Rs26 (for postal charges!). This is surprising as the portal advocates online work system and sends a kit (username and password) through post!
The portal offers two ways to earn easy money, one is paid email program and paid surveys. Thegml.com claims, “These emails contain the list of advertisements. You just have to click those links for 20-30 seconds once the link will be open, your account will be credited by sum amount. You are helping the advertising companies and they are returning their favour. The advertising companies are able to pay you because their advertisers pay them every time they send you an advertisement.”
Unfortunately, opening links in an email does have its own security risks. Internet security experts and organisations often caution users from opening a link from an email. US-CERT, for instance, says, “Do not follow unsolicited web links in email messages and use caution when opening email attachments.”
Coming back to thegml.com, it offers paid surveys as a second option to earn easy money. It says, “You will get the surveys by email. It will take just 5 to 10 minutes to complete the survey. For each and every survey you complete, you will get money. Companies need your opinions to understand how to reach their customers. Because of this, companies are willing to pay people like you. You just have to answer these questions without worrying it wrong or right.”
Sounds similar? This is the same thing promised by Speak Asia, which later went bust leaving thousands of its members high and dry. Thegml.com also claims that it conducts survey or sends paid emails on behalf of many multinational companies. However, there are no names.
When the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police arrested executives of the multi-level marketing (MLM) company, it was revealed that the surveys were designed in Mumbai itself and not in Singapore as claimed by Speak Asia.
Speak Asia duped around 23 lakh investors to the tune of Rs2,000 crore. It promised a weekly income, merely on filling online survey forms. Initially the company paid the money to its panellists but stopped all payments since May 2010. After complaints were lodged against the company, it came under the scrutiny of the EOW, Mumbai. Last year the Enforcement Directorate also registered a case against Speak Asia, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in connection with the multi-crore MLM scam.
Earlier the investigating agency had arrested Speak Asia’s chief operating officer (COO), Tarak Bajpai, along with few other employees. Currently, Manoj Kumar, its CEO and Harendar Kaur, a Singaporean of Indian origin and company’s chairperson are absconding.
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China has been bold to ban the operations of MLM companies as they considered them money circulation schemes.
One initial entrant into India, for example, had, at one time, over 220,000 agents in India, whose combined joining payment was as much as the annual turnover. The unlimited level commission sharing arrangement, is noything but money circulation. But in India, no regulatory authority bothers to examine anything that looks smart. This mentality in our country ensures that the fraudsters will be at work devising more and more schemes.