Cenbank raises red flag on Onpassive
The circular mentioned that the multi-level marketing company is encouraging people to invest through advertisements in various mediums, including social media.
The Bangladesh Bank has issued a strong warning, urging individuals to refrain from investing or engaging in any financial transactions with Onpassive, an Indian multi-level marketing (MLM) company accused of embezzling investor funds through Ponzi schemes.
In a notification issued on Thursday, the central bank said numerous MLM companies engaged in fraudulent activities in Bangladesh earlier and misappropriated substantial sums from the public.
The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has found evidence that Onpassive is also engaged in such activities. It has started operations in Bangladesh offering lucrative but fraudulent schemes to lure people into investing, said the notification.
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Claiming to be an IT-based product and software company, Onpassive is headquartered in India and has offices in the US. It also operates in Singapore, Dubai, and Egypt.
On its website, Onpassive touts a comprehensive suite of software solutions, from digital payment services to domain/website creation tools to business email solutions.
The company has its own digital platforms such as O-Net, O-Shop, and O-mail as alternatives to Facebook, Amazon, and Gmail, respectively.
Kamruzzaman Kanak, who invested in the company, told The Business Standard, "To join Onpassive, one has to be the founder of the company with an initial investment of $102. Another $250 has to be paid after a specified time of joining."
He said, "One has to join the company through another founder member. A portion of the company's revenue will be disbursed to investors as it claimed."
Joining Onpassive requires membership dues, payable in dollars through various international cards like Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and even Bitcoin.
Another investor Sarwar said, "After shelling out $102 for Onpassive membership, I dutifully downloaded all their recommended apps. However, a month of diligent browsing yielded nothing but frustration and unanswered calls."
A video documentary on Onpassive shows the company set its targets for a massive $450 billion market, with online education leading the charge at $250 billion, followed by domain and web hosting at $53 billion, digital payments at $79 billion, and email marketing at $2 billion.
