Rajahmundry: Persons who were allegedly duped by Ocean Media IT Solutions, Ads Posting and Marketing Limited have demanded that that their money collected by the firm be refunded and urged the police to act swiftly and bring the culprits to book.Addressing a media conference here on Friday, T N V Harshavardhan, who is leading about 1200 victims  said that they have allegedly lost about Rs25 crore.

He said the victims had told that they have given all proofs to the police about the owners of the firm and the company is still continuing their online business and opening new branches in different towns like Ongole, Guntur, Nellore, Visakhapatnam and other places.Harshavardhan  said that victims had lodged a complaint against the firm on April 13 in Two Town police station of Rajahmundry and police have registered the case.

Explaining about the modus operandi of the accused-Managing Directors of the firm, Chiluka Chandramouli Reddy and Charan (Nellore), Staff Head and total in-charge Vishnu of Ongole and other staff members, he said that they have given classified advertisement in newspapers offering online jobs through which they collected deposits ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs.50 lakh and the  job of the depositor is to send bulk SMS to large number of customers about different products on which the said Ocean Media marketing company would pay the double the amount that the depositor has deposited. Attracted by `double’ offer, depositors started investing in thousands at the beginning when the company returned the amount promptly, he added.

One of the victims said that she did not suspect the company as they got phone calls to collect the money which is doubled within few days. She maintained that people then started investing the same doubled amount in it and the chain continued till the owners decamped with our money.A group of victims about 150 staged a dharna in front of Press Club near Ganesh Chowk and demanded the immediate arrest of the accused and also recovery of money from them.