Activist Shreha Dhargalkar busts Rs 10 crore pan-India fake “Guinness World Records” certificate racket

MUMBAI: Social worker and Human Rights activist Shreha Dhargalkar busted a fake “Guinness World Records” certificate racket, which could have allegedly swindled more than Rs 10 crore from over 5000 unsuspecting businessmen and entrepreneurs across various States of India.

The scam came to light when some persons contacted Shreha on phone claiming to be from Delhi and offered her an award, promising her a “Guinness World Records” certificate for her social work, and offered various “award packages”.

The scammers who also own or manage some other fake ‘award rackets’ and provide fake certificates of the Limca Book of Records, World Book of Records, Asia Book of Records and others, claimed that their packages ranged from Rs 2500 for just a certificate to Rs 35,000/- for a certificate, sash, trophy, medal and other paraphernalia along with a press release published on their “official website”.

They even offered paid Tv interviews on various mainline news channels as well as “press releases” published through paid advertorials with some “news agencies” – all for a price.

The scammers whose address showed or mentioned a place in Ghaziabad in North India provided a Google Pay number to make the payment and even sent Shreha some sample certificates of various persons who were awarded by them. They sent their website link as https://theguinness (dot) in/home/ and https://theguinness (dot) in/.

On checking the websites Shreha realized the websites were fake with copies or scraped content from several other sites. On checking with various sources, it was confirmed that the sites and operation was totally fake and further investigation revealed that the frauds had scammed hundreds, if not thousands of individuals from various parts of the country, by collecting amounts ranging from Rs 2500 to Rs 25,000.

After Shreha investigated the matter online, she realized their operation was so widespread that more than 5000 persons could have been scammed by the criminals over the last 1-2 years, taking the total scam amount to more than Rs 10 crore, she claimed.

Shreha has appealed to the law enforcement authorities in Goa, Mumbai and Delhi to suo moto investigate this scam and arrest the culprits involved as innocent persons are being scammed and cheated in the guise of providing “participation” and appreciation certificates using names and brands of established worldwide entities.