Tk10,000cr siphoned off rendering 5 lakh people paupers

Staff Reporter :
The Dubai-based app Metaverse Foreign Exchange Group (MTFE) allegedly siphoned off at least Tk10,000 crore from as thousands of people across the country lost all their investment.

Around five lakh people might have been scammed by the cyber ponzi scheme Metaverse Foreign Exchange (MTFE), losing thousands crores of Taka, suspect the Criminal Investigation Department of police.

Earlier on August 17, The illicit online gambling and cryptocurrency trading MLM company Metaverse Foreign Exchange (MTFE) ceased its operation.

MTFE users, already anxious about their inability to withdraw funds for two weeks, were suddenly confronted with substantial and questionable losses in their virtual trading accounts.

However, no government agency is taking responsibility for the MTFE scam that has left thousands of Bangladeshis staring at catastrophic losses due to the murky nature of its operations.

Most of the victims are from Dhaka, Barishal, Rajshahi, Cumilla, Naogaon, Kushtia, Brahmanbaria and Satkhira, said CID following primary investigation.

The MTFE did not have a physical presence in Bangladesh, its operations began in January this year.

They widely promoted their platform on social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, as an easy way to earn money from home.

Various videos and ads made many people in Bangladesh interested, with the majority getting involved after seeing others join.

In this, referral or multi-level marketing (MLM) played a role.

CID officials further said that the MTFE app could be easily downloaded from the Google Play Store and required registration.

Post-registration, customers needed to maintain a balance in dollars for trading.

Depending on the dollar amount, they were regularly enticed with promises of profits.

Hoping for substantial returns, hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi people invested in this app.

Investors were lured with claims like a daily profit of Tk5,000 on an investment of $500.

A few, however, managed to gain a fraction of profits, but the majority of customers ultimately lost their investments when the illicit online gambling company ceased its operation.

The CID said that not only MTFE, similar app-based multi-level marketing and crypto currency schemes are operating in Bangladesh illegally, and people should be cautious and alert to not get scammed by the illegal business.

Addressing the government’s failure to stop these kinds of app-based grumbling, Ghulam Rahman, the president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh(CAB), thinks although the greed of the people was instrumental in falling victim to this scam, the government has a responsibility to prevent such incidents.

“Whenever a crime is committed, the government should bring those perpetrators to book,” the president of CAB expressed.