Millions of dollars have been defrauded through the Mplus and SMC apps, claiming to earn daily income by depositing a certain amount of money online, creating more members, or viewing or liking ads.
What you should know
Suman Upadhyay of Jayaprithi Municipality-4 received a message from a friend on Facebook Messenger last September. There was a link there.
Immediately, the friend called and said, "After filling in the form given in the link, email, phone number, e-sewa or Khalti ID details for payment and paying 2,000, you will get regular money by liking the advertisements of the products given there."
Suman, who works as an assistant employee at a printing house in the district headquarters of Chainpur, was lured when he was told that he could earn money by liking. As his friend taught him, he filled out the online form called 'Mplus'. It required a minimum deposit of 2,000 rupees to open an account through e-sewa or Khalti. When he deposited 2,000, he started earning 300 rupees a day.
If he deposited 4,000 rupees to open an account, he would earn 600 rupees a day. There was also an option to deposit 1-1.5 million rupees at once to open an account and it was said that 'the number of daily earnings would also increase accordingly.' "After opening an account, you had to like the advertisements of the products shown there and you would get additional bonuses by referring other members," Suman said.
The number of other members connected to the Mplus online system could also be seen. By the first week of Kartik, more than 51,000 members had joined it. He thought, ‘It must be good that so many people have joined.’ He could like the advertisements shown online from 10 am to 5 pm, 6 days a week except Saturday. He thought this was a way to earn money easily. He made his relatives and friends members by asking them to do the same. Without saying anything, 12 thousand were deposited in his Mplus account in 15 days.
On 2 Kartik, he tried to transfer the amount to his bank account, but by then the Mplus account had become inactive. He asked his friend, and his had also become inactive. ‘The accounts of other members I had created had also become inactive,’ he said, adding that the Mplus online system had been shut down from that day. ‘I was cheated, cheated, other relatives and friends I had made members were also cheated because of me. It was embarrassing to even show my face in front of them.'' He said that some people worked as wage earners, while others earned money from business. ''Some people became members by making a deal,'' he said. In this way, he said that people from ordinary literates and those who knew how to use mobile phones to educated people were cheated by Mplus. ''Some people had invested even Rs 50/60 thousand in the greed of earning more. After the system was shut down, everyone's money sank. The fraudster must have drained Rs 15/20 crore in less than a month,'' he said.
SMC fraud after Mplus
Even after Mplus Online scammed a huge amount and escaped, the public has not stopped falling into the trap laid by online fraudsters. Another online fraud network called 'SMC App' targeting the general public who are only recently accustomed to technology has been found to have committed a big fraud from districts like Bajhang and Bajura.
This group has lured the general public by saying that they will earn monthly income based on the amount after downloading the SMC app and depositing a certain amount. It was said that a minimum amount of three thousand to two million one lakh rupees could be deposited in this app. Depending on the amount deposited, they had to watch five to two hundred short videos daily and earn money for watching the videos. People's representatives, teachers, and municipal employees were also involved in this pyramid scheme, under the temptation of getting a 10 percent commission for encouraging other members to become app users.
Since such people whom the villagers trust were the ones who encouraged them to become members, the honest people easily fell into the trap of fraudsters. One of them is Kavita Agri of Mashta Rural Municipality-2. After an employee working in a rural municipality where she is related showed her the lure of becoming a member, she joined the SMC app by depositing her earnings from selling vegetables. She was told that she would receive the same amount as her monthly salary after paying nine thousand nine hundred rupees. After seeking loans, she also opened accounts in the names of her husband and children. The family also watched the video as per the app's rules. The earnings were also shown on the app.
When Kavita tried to withdraw the money, a notification appeared saying, 'You have to pay Rs 2,740 in tax to withdraw this amount.' The tax amount was asked to be deposited in an e-service account named Anjana Tamang. 'I was suspicious about having to deposit the money again,' Kavita said, 'When I asked a knowledgeable neighbor, he said, 'You pay the tax to the government, don't put it in the person's account, you have been cheated,' I was shocked.' The app stopped working within a few days. Kavita said that four people in the family were cheated of Rs 39,600.
SMC had initially given the amount as promised to some members unconditionally. Some people had lured others to become members by showing them the amount they had withdrawn. Those who initially encouraged the general public to become members now do not want to talk about it. ‘Initially, some people became members after seeing that they were earning seven to eight times more than what they invested,’ said an employee of Masta Rural Municipality, who did not want to be named. ‘When the number of members increased rapidly, they made it an excuse for taxes. Now the app itself has been shut down.’ He had become a member by depositing 33,800 rupees.
He says that more than 600 people were cheated in this way in Masta alone. ‘In Masta alone, more than 10 million rupees must have been cheated,’ he said. Victim Sher Bahadur Okheda said that the majority of those cheated by SMC are in Masta, Saipal, Surma, Talkot, Durgathali Rural Municipality and Bungal Municipality, which are considered remote areas of Bajhang. ‘Everyone in the village easily believed us when they were told that they would earn good money,’ he said, adding that he had also lost 33,800 rupees. ‘Many honest people in the village also invested with their own money. In the end, everyone got caught.’
Locals say that online fraudsters have also taken money from residents of remote areas of Bajura. Gangaraj Pandit, who runs a stationery shop in Bajura headquarters, says that everyone from the general public of Gaumul, Khaptadchhede Daha and other municipalities, who have recently gained access to the internet, to businessmen living in the district headquarters Martadi, official-level employees of government offices and people's representatives, are trapped.
'It can be said that no one has been trapped, social activists, leaders and employees are trapped, what about the general public?' He said, 'SMC has cheated more than two to three crores from Bajura alone.' He estimates that more than 1,500 people from Bajura Municipality, who have gained access to the internet, have been cheated. However, no investigation has been conducted in this regard.
It seems that SMC has been inciting educated and trusted people to become members and employees by advertising on websites like Jobs Nepal.com and Mero Job.com to trap them. Websites, social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn were also used to advertise how to become a member of the SMC app and how to earn money. All social media accounts in the name of SMC have now been deactivated, and most of the information on the internet has been removed.
People are being cheated but are not complaining
People from most districts of the Far West have not filed complaints despite being cheated through such online/digital platforms. ‘We have also heard rumors that SMC cheated, but no one has come forward with a complaint,’ said Bajura Police Chief DSP Iqwal Awari. ‘Since there was no complaint, we did not do anything.’ Bajhang Police Chief DSP Khagendra Dhamala said that people may not want to file a complaint due to fear of being defamed or facing action. He said that ordinary victims do not come forward to file a complaint because they do not know the legal process.
There are also people who are being cheated by SMC in urban areas. According to Deepak Raj Awasthi, spokesperson for the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police, 255 victims have filed complaints alleging that they were cheated by the SMC app. The police arrested 11 people, including a Chinese national, on charges of online fraud on Monday and started an investigation. The complainants are residents of the Kathmandu Valley. They have filed complaints alleging that they were cheated of between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2.5 million.
‘If you look at Google Playstore, the app, which was launched in March 2025, has been downloaded more than 72,000 times by August,’ Awasthi said. ‘All of them must have downloaded it only after becoming members of the app.’ He said that there are many victims of SMC in remote districts too, but no complaints have been received. ‘The district police should facilitate the victims and help them send their complaints to us,’ he said. So far, more than Rs 128 million has been proven to have been cheated based on complaints and the amount is still large, he said.
The company appears to have been registered with the Registrar of Companies under the name of ‘SMCN Advertising Service Center’ with the aim of providing advertising services. The Cyber Bureau has stated that the app it operates has been defrauding people by promising high returns on a small investment and bonuses for adding new members. In the last fiscal year alone, the bureau registered a total of 18,926 complaints of cybercrime across the country. Of these, 8,723 complaints (about 41 percent of the total complaints) were of online financial fraud.
