Speak Asia Scam in India

The Speak Asia Scam was a multi-level marketing scam that took place in India between 2010 and 2011. It involved a company called Speak Asia Online, which claimed to be a Singapore-based market research firm. The company promised to pay people for completing online surveys and recruited members through a pyramid-like structure.

Speak Asia Online collected money from its members, promising them high returns on investment. The company claimed that the money collected would be used to conduct market research, and the members would be paid for completing surveys. However, the company did not conduct any actual research, and the payments made to the members were only a small fraction of what was promised.

The scam came to light when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) froze the company's bank accounts and launched an investigation into its operations. The investigation revealed that the company was operating as a Ponzi scheme, where existing investors were paid with the money collected from new investors. The total amount collected by the company is estimated to be around Rs 2,200 crore.

Several top officials of the company were arrested, and the company was shut down. The scam had a significant impact on the people who had invested in the scheme, and many of them lost their life savings.

The Speak Asia Scam highlighted the need for better regulation and oversight of multi-level marketing schemes in India. It also raised questions about the legitimacy of online surveys and the need for people to be cautious while investing their money. The Indian government has introduced new regulations and laws to prevent similar scams from happening in the future. The Speak Asia Scam remains one of the most significant financial scams in India's history.