Thousands of Sri Lankans duped by Internet
scam
Posted: 08 November 2006 1421 hrs
COLOMBO - C. Sathishkumar was one of thousands of Sri Lankan
youngsters who invested in an Internet promotion to evaluate
products online in return for quick cash -- and like the others, he
lost all his money.
Police said this week that the scam, allegedly run by two Indians
from a firm named Seagull Softwares, netted more than five million
dollars in the past year, making it the biggest Internet fraud case
in the country's history.
Seagull promised that anyone who paid 6,500 rupees ($65) for a
"slot" on their website would be able to earn 60 percent a month on
their investment by simply evaluating consumer goods online in
their spare time.
"I joined in February 2006 and reinvested the salary to buy more
slots. Like that, I bought 101 slots. At the end of the day, I have
nothing in my pocket. I lost my money which I had saved for my
wedding," said Sathishkumar.
Police Senior Superintendent Willie Abeynayake said about 14,000
people were believed to have fallen victim to the scam and the
money siphoned out could be "anything over 500 million rupees ($5
million)."
"This is the biggest scam of this nature using the Internet,"
Abeynayake told Agence France-Pressse. "We have reported the matter
to court and the case is being given to the CID (Criminal
Investigations Department) because the money involved is
huge."
He said no arrests had been made so far and a preliminary
investigation showed that the two Indian men had fled the country
after closing down the website late last month.
A website put up by victims of the scam put the number duped at
23,000 since the offer began in January, as university campuses
were plastered with fliers and ads appeared in newspapers.
Sujith Prasanna, 19, came to know about the scheme through a
leaflet distributed outside his school. He had lost 650,000 rupees
($6,500) by "investing" in 100 slots.
"I first bought one slot for which they paid me after 45 days.
After that I started going for more. At the start I earned good
money," said Prasanna.
"But later there was a notice on the Seagull website that said it
was under construction, so for nine days I didn't have any work to
do. But later someone alerted me through an email and said the
company had closed down," he said.
Among the biggest losers were people who attempted to subcontract
the work to others in the hope of making more money.
"I realize now that these people ran a scam," said Sunil Jayantha
Navaratne, a local social worker who raised money from friends,
family and business associates. "I made a mistake. I am going to
find a way to compensate them, even sell my personal
property."
Police superintendent Abeynayake said the fraud was cleverly
managed so that word spread quickly.
"People who got into the scheme earlier this year received the
initial payments so they believed it was a good money-earner,"
Abeynayake said. "I think greed led them to re-invest and some
parted with millions of rupees."
Hareen Tennakoon, president of the victims' group, has urged the
authorities to seek foreign help to track down the culprits. He
said Seagull had sold more than 100,000 slots in October before the
website was shut.
With around 30 operators, Sri Lanka's fledgling outsourcing
industry is worth about 100 million dollars, according to a survey
this year by the local Information Communication and Technology
Agency.
The scam however may dampen interest in outsourcing jobs in the
war-torn country of 19 million which has tens of thousands of
English-speaking graduates.
"This has given outsourcing a bad name," Tennakoon said. "The
government should step in to ensure better. This is a good lesson."
- AFP/sh
