Tarun Karthick
Campbell Bay, 27 September 2021
Money Within Reach abbreviated as MWR is a scam fast spreading in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. MWR offers its members income by clicking some buttons on their website and mobile app which is dubbed as work.
This fake company requires its users to pay a deposit to upgrade to levels which are named VIP1, VIP2, VIP3 etc. For a member to join the platform an invite code is required (Recommendation Code). The member initially joins as VIP0 where the earning opportunities are very meagre. The representatives of the company recommend users to upgrade to a higher VIP level by paying a work deposit so that they can earn more money.
With each up-gradation in VIP level, the income increases according to the company. It is also a fact that the company is currently paying its members the promised amount.
There are several red flags in MWR which proves that it is a broad scam and at one point the members will surely lose money.
MWR can be accessed by visiting their website mwrindia.in . Their mobile app is also available to download from their website. Their mobile app is essentially a web view native android mobile application. The mobile app of MWR is not available for download in any app store.
Given below are the Red Flags on MWR which proves that it is a scam:
1. Substantial information about MWR – Money Within Reach is not available on the web:
Apart from the few YouTube Videos which we found on the web no substantial information on the company is available on the web. Their website is only accessible after generating credentials. There is no information about the company and their contact information is also not available on their website. There are a few videos on their website which claims that MWR was established and invested by Barclays Bank UK.
There are some other companies like MWR Life, which is unrelated to Money Within Reach-MWR.
2. Claims of MWR made on the videos available on their website:
As mentioned above MWR claims that they were established by the Barclays Bank UK. They further claim in their videos that they work with Amazon, eBay, Ali Express etc. and help them in processing their orders.
They claimed that the merchants like Amazon, eBay, Ali Express pays MWR and in turn, MWR pays its members.
Following are the four videos available on MWR Website:
Nicobar Times sent emails to all the companies listed above, while we are yet to receive an official response from them, a representative from one of the above-mentioned companies called Nicobar Times and unofficially confirmed that the company does not work with MWR and has never worked with them. He further informed that as the weekend is approaching they will need one week to officially respond.
3. The Platforms of MWR:
MWR has hosted a website and is available on the URL mwrindia.in. The website is only accessible after entering credentials and looks cheap. No reputed company will publish such a cheap looking website.
Their mobile app is a web view native android app.
The website had some page titles in the Chinese Language which increased our curiosity and the WHOIS Data confirmed that the domain name has been registered to an address in Hong Kong which is a special administrative region of China. The address listed on WHOIS for mwrindia.in is 38, Lo Fai Road, Hong Kong.
The address mentioned in the WHOIS data leads us to an apartment complex in Hong Kong.
The platform of mwrindia.in provides members with some fake work which is just clicking on buttons. The users are shown some products and they need to click on the submit button. Each VIP level is given a different number of tasks to complete and is paid differently.
The work given by MWR is just an eyewash to fool people that the company is involved with e-commerce giants and generates income from them. The clicks by the members do nothing but add credits to their account which can be transferred to their bank accounts.
The recharge option on their website leads us to two different payment methods. It is important to mention that the first payment which is named Easy Recharge takes us to a page by Ocean Pay Payment Gateway and the name of the entity to whom the payment is being made is mentioned as Kutubjan Bibi, instead of any company name. The payment through this option directly goes to a UPI ID. The VPA of the UPI ID is himanshurajnik@icici.
The second option of payment named Easy Recharge 2 also does the same thing.
On their recharge page, we found a customer care WhatsApp number +91-8550833165.
4. How MWR is scamming people and its modus operandi?
The investigation of Nicobar Times reflects that MWR is a hybrid of a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid scheme and an online job scam.
MWR essentially is a platform where members join below the people who invite them, they pay an amount to upgrade their VIP level and the commission is shared with their parent members. The members are getting paid for fake jobs. The old members are most probably getting paid from the deposits made by new members and the scam will continue until a substantial number of new members keep joining MWR.
MWR is making money by joining new members and only thrives on the deposits they make with the company.
5. The Reach of MWR:
When we approached the customer care WhatsApp number of MWR available on the recharge section of their website, the agent informed us that MWR has helped 1 million people.
We also had a chat with the representative of MWR named Mr. William (who claimed to be our account manager) and he informed us that MWR has 1000 people from Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Mr. William shared the contact of a local member from Andaman and Nicobar Islands who then texted us on WhatsApp and upon query from her she informed that MWR had 300 VIP2 Members, 100 VIP3 Members and 500 VIP1 members from the Islands. She further added that there are 2000 registered members of MWR from Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Nicobar Times suspects that MWR operates nationwide.
The file below shows the screen capture from one of the WhatsApp groups of MWR. This shows numerous people from Andaman and Nicobar Islands are upgrading their VIP level each day by paying huge sums of money.
6. Absurd communications from its representatives and members:
Nicobar Times tried to get legal documents of MWR by posing as a prospect member of MWR who wishes to upgrade and we got some absurd replies.
When asked for company documents from Mr. William the representative of MWR (who claimed he is my account manager) replied “you are not eligible, you can also not join”
The WhatsApp customer care number of MWR informed “Any company certification of MWR cannot be disclosed to the public. If you think MWR is a fake company, you can not join. MWR does not force anyone to join.”
This seems to be the regular practice of the MWR representatives as the screenshot shared by another member of MWR showed that he met with similar responses when he asked them for company registration documents.
Further, we sent communications over WhatsApp to the Customer Care Number of MWR, to Mr. William (who claimed to be my account manager) and to the member from Andaman and Nicobar Islands who established contact with us after Mr. William shared our number with her. The communication was a letter with some of our findings on MWR and we asked them to respond.
Mr. Williams soon blocked us after the communication was sent to him on WhatsApp.
The member from Andaman and Nicobar Islands gave us a call and started shouting and talking illogically after she received the communication.
The Customer Care WhatsApp number threatened us with legal consequences.
7. The Scamadviser.com Check:
scamadviser.com is a free tool available on the web which provides a trust score on websites. The trust score of mwrindia.in was 50 on scamadviser.com which according to the website is quite low. Scamadviser.com determines the trust score using a computer algorithm. The algorithm looks at 40+ data points based on which it creates a trust score.
Based on the above findings it has become clear that Money Within Reach or MWR is a broad scam.
Law enforcement agencies should take action on MWR-Money Within Reach to prevent any more people from joining the fake company and to stop the loot of hard-earned money of the citizens.