COO of SpeakAsia, Tarak Bajpai detained

"But please tell us, how will we get back our invested money?", lamented one gentleman in Comments section of an article in the website of a prominent Indian News Channel. The article reported the detention of Tarak Bajpai, the COO of SpeakAsia. Like this guy above, there are many others who got lured by the promise of easy money. If the numbers are to be believed, there are about 20 Lakh panelists of Speak Asia, a scheme that pays money to its subscribers (panelists) for filling survey forms, online.

I empathize with this gentleman. Make no mistake, I being from a humble middle-class family, understand how it feels when hard earned money gets lost to a dubious scheme. However, truth be told, this money is not an investment. An investment happens as a result of researching a particular business model, an analysis of expected future cash flows, the profile and trustworthiness of the promoters of the business. On all these counts, money chipped in such schemes can not be called an investment. Even after doing all this research, you may end up losing some money in your investment. But not researching any of this, surely is not an investment. Yet this is not the first instance where a large number of gullible masses have lost their money to ponzi schemes, online lotteries, etc. Bernie Madoff is a living proof that people across the world, irrespective of their educational background can be lured into schemes that certainly are not investment.

A recent episode of a prime-time Hindi TV show "Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma" (coincidentally sharing his first name with COO of Speak Asia!), showed how Bhide (a middle-class Maharashtrian guy) got lured into an online lottery scam and almost lost his entire net-worth as well as his wife's jewellery. Fortunately, it was a serial that is known for happy endings. However, this is unlike life. In such instances, more often than not, life throws up rude shocks.

I sincerely hope, the guy above and many others like him, get back their money. But a lesson that is never learnt despite the numerous ponzi schemes in the past is that whenever some money scheme appears too good to be true, it most certainly is a fraud.