When a 'surf and earn' company run by Supriyo Sanyal, Darshan Garg and another associate called Maffin (I) Pvt Ltd was dubbed bogus by the police authorities in Raipur, Chattisgarh, around thousand people had already lost their money.

Businessman Ambar Bishwas, advocate S K Saharia and Arjun S were among those who were drawn by a desire to earn easy money. The business involved members surfing various sites, clicking on advertisements that appeared in these sites and convincing other people to become members of the company by paying a deposit. This in turn led to accumulation of points on the basis of which members received remuneration.

The company began operations in October 2002 and the members apparently received their cheques initially. The flow of cheques soon stopped, and when the company office closed down, members lodged a police complaint.

The police nabbed both Sanyal and Garg who were trying to flee. Says sub-inspector, Meena Choudhury of the Ganj Thana police station in Raipur, who made the arrest on April 21, "Several young and educated people have deposited money to become members of this business." The accused have been booked under section 420 and section 34. As the case of this cyber crime came to light, several people have come forward to confess that they had joined this marketing and ad surfing business only to earn fast bucks.

Bishwas and Saharia became members of this company by depositing a sum of Rs 6825. Says Saharia, "I was told that it involved a simple process. We were told to surf the Internet for around half an hour, watch various advertisements that appeared in sites like maffinforever.com and maffindia.com." Initial payments increased their trust on the company and led more people to join.

"More and more people are falling prey to this kind of business related to the Internet due to the ever increasing cyber craze," said DSP of Chattisgarh, I H Khan.

The Chattisgarh Police department does not have a separate cyber crime cell, so there is no record of the number of such cases in this state. But the authorities are sure that several young students and even housewives are getting lured to this kind of fraudulent Net-based businesses.

Saharia says that several people earlier associated with this business claimed to have earned a hefty amount. The owners of the company claimed that the site is operated from New Delhi and carries advertisement of several reputed firms. Unfortunately for Saharia, the company closed down soon after he had deposited the money.

Despite such cases, some Net surfers continue to experiment with these sites. For 32-year-old Gautam M, it's about spending an hour in morning and evening in a cyber café. He surfs certain sites religiously and even claims to have received a few cheques. "As long I receive remuneration, I have no problems," he says.

Another firm named Web-Vision Technocrats Pvt Ltd, operating from Jabalpur is involved in a similar business. The company suggested surfing sites like web-visiontech.com, web-vision-clicks.com, web-vision-hits.com. However, when the members associated with it try and contact the owners now, they reach a dead end and most of them have not received any compensation or gotten back their deposits.

"Part-time job facilities through the Internet sounds lucrative these days," says Meenal Verma, a housewife, who feels that while some of these sites are quite promising, it is difficult to establish how genuine they are.

DSP I H Khan says that as precautionary method, one needs to be extremely vigilant about the reliability of any company, particularly ones related to the Web. "The glamour of Internet can be deceptive too," he warns.

For the thousand or more members associated with Maffin, there seems to be no way of getting their money back, as of now. so the next time you consider a 'surf and earn' business, make sure you do some research on the company, before you regret your next click. 

Additional Resource:

-- Guidelines for Net based business opportunities