Jeka Bazar: The anatomy of an ‘e-commerce’ scam

A dozen people gathered on the second floor of Nannu Tower at Panna Chattar, Rajbari. 

On the third floor of the building is Jeka Bazar's office – a so-called 'e-commerce' company where these people had 'invested' their money. On 2 November, the company office had been sealed off by the local administration while its executives had gone into hiding.

The people that gathered on that Sunday, 14 November, were anxious for the money they had invested in Jeka Bazar with the hope to 'earn by watching online advertisements.' 

They were promised by Jeka Bazar that if they invested a little more than Tk1 lakh, they could earn around Tk30,000 per month by clicking on certain ads on their website through the registered login IDs. 

The crowd was angry. When I introduced myself as a journalist, one of the men said, "Can you help us get our bills? You cannot!"

Moreover, they were also reluctant to speak to a journalist because they feared the newspapers might say 'negative' things about Jeka Bazar and, in effect, ruin any hope for the company to potentially return and pay their monthly bills.

"Many of us will have no choice but to end our lives if we do not get back our money," said a retired military personnel, Lokman, who had invested nearly Tk8 lakh into Jeka Bazar. 

"They showed me many documents to earn my trust and for me to believe that they were a legitimate e-commerce company," Lokman said. "If possible, please help us get our bills," he sounded desperate, particularly because he had invested approximately a month prior to the early November closure of the company. And so, he could not even earn much money in the monthly payment format by watching ads. 

Jeka Bazar, from the look of its website, definitely appears as an e-commerce company. There are a myriad of products showcased on their website. 

When one is convinced that it is a nice looking e-commerce site, one clicks on their products. Interestingly, it is all written in Latin. Other than the product photo, there is no way to understand, from their cryptic descriptions and specifications, what these products are. 

They were promised by Jeka Bazar that if they invested a little more than Tk1 lakh, they could earn around Tk30,000 per month by clicking on certain ads on their website through the registered login IDs. 

For example, let's say, you clicked to purchase a router. The product name in Latin says: "Officiis nobis tempore est rerum perspiciatis molestiae ad." 

We used Google Translate to translate the product name. The result? Some bizarre sentences like, "It is time for us to deal with the hardships of business." 

Also, the product descriptions were even more unusual. The router's description read as "It is impossible to prevent it from being all that easy. But we deem any choice or to condemn anyone. Some, if not most, headaches…" and it goes on. 

Unsurprisingly, these routers were priced absurdly low at Tk357.15. 

The router is one of the many examples of products showcased on their website in this manner. In fact, most products are presented like this, making it hard to believe that they were actually selling anything online. 

Although they did have products in their offices to maintain the façade of an 'e-commerce' company, the aspect of selling products online was just eyewash to scam ordinary people.  

In early November, the local administration in Rajbari sealed their office only because they found issues with the products they had in their office. 

But the irony is that this is not, by any means, what Jeka Bazar is about. 

Specifics of the scam

The revenue system devised by the cunning brains of this company involved getting people to watch ads on their site through the login IDs they sold and by promising to pay each ID from Tk6 to Tk8 for looking at the screen for 30 seconds. 

After reaching out to a few dozens of deceived 'investors,' The Business Standard came to know that Jeka Bazar sold each ID for Tk1,300 and paid these IDs holders – for watching a single ad per day – up to Tk240 per month. 

After investigating some of the IDs, TBS found that they showed two different ads (the ads equally as bizarre as their products) repeatedly; and after an ID watches it for 30 seconds, Jeka pays Tk8, which they can get at the end of the month through a mobile phone or regular banking system. 

When you buy one such ID, Jeka will call you a promoter. And the more IDs you buy, the more attractive the packages become. 

Located at the district level, and operating mostly in villages, people behind Jeka Bazar were very smart in distancing themselves from the term 'MLM' (multi-level marketing) although this is exactly what their online scam is all about. 

How? Suppose you have bought 100 IDs from them by 'investing' over Tk1 lakh. Now, there are 'A, B and C hands' packages luring you. The word 'hand' should already remind you of the Destiny days. 

But unlike the Destiny MLM group, Jeka Bazar did not ask you to bring in more people. They asked that for each of your A, B and C hands if you filled in 150 IDs (total 450 IDs), you could get a special Tk50,000 bonus! 

So, how much does Jeka Bazar get by selling 450 IDs? Tk585,000!

When Consumer Rights sealed Jeka outlets for false ads and degraded products, they also fined the enterprise for breaching "Article 37 and 44 of the consumer rights protection law," said Shoriful Islam, the Assistant Director of Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, Rajbari.

However, they are not unaware of the MLM structure of the business. "They said it was referral income, although it suspiciously resembled an MLM. Instead of right-hand and left-hand systems, they were using a different model," said Islam. 

"According to the Digital Commerce Operation Guidelines 2021 operating an online MLM business is forbidden. Also, the act of earning money by watching an ad is deceitful," he added. 

The consumer rights officer added that the last people to join these businesses were usually the ones that got hurt the most. "Suppose, one lakh people were already scammed, if they could have kept running for three more months, this number would have risen to 20 lakh people." 

We asked Islam for an exact figure of the number of people that had invested in Jeka Bazar. "We do not have an exact figure. It is beyond the responsibilities of our department." 

However, he cited an intelligence report that estimated the number of Jeka Bazar 'promoters' – the people who invested money for buying IDs – was approximately 25,000. 

"There are people among these promoters who alone invested up to Tk20 lakh. If we count one lakh on average, the total amount invested here could exceed Tk250 crore," Islam added.

However, since everyone did not invest more than Tk1 lakh, Islam said, "It is rumoured that the actual figure could be around Tk50 crore." 

In response to The Business Standard's question on the assumed amount Jeka Bazar potentially amassed through its online MLM scam, Dilshad Begum, the deputy commissioner (DC) of Rajbari district said, "Regarding the amount you mentioned, we have not received any such allegations yet." 

"No aggrieved person has come to us. The affected clients have yet to file their complaints with us. Also, I do not have information on whether they had filed any complaints in the thana as well. Since Consumer Rights is dealing with it, let us see what can be done in accordance with their laws. We will also see if someone complains," said the DC.

However, the consumer rights officer said, "We do not have a mechanism in place to recover their (promoters') money."

He said the best he could do is to advise the victims to file a criminal case or specify clearly to the concerned authorities that they have been deceived.  

But what about the promoters? Would the aggrieved 'investors' who gathered at Nannu Tower do so? 

"Please help us get a month's bill. I have nowhere else to go," one visibly desperate promoter pleaded to this reporter. 

Several attempts were made to contact Jeka Bazar owners for comment. However, most of their contact phone numbers were switched off, while a few did not pick up.