Over the weekend around seventy former Qnet affiliates staged a protest in India’s southern Karnataka state.

Angry victims of the scheme claim thousands of QNet investors have been duped across the country, while authorities continue to do nothing.

Among the protesters at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park were local doctors, software engineer and private business owners.

Collectively they claim to have lost hundreds of thousands of rupees in QNet.

They claimed they were forced to bring in more investments from family members and friends to recover their principal investments.

They (also) alleged that the company was selling products under the pyramid scheme and collecting investments from people by promising a high interest rate.

Stories recorded by the Times of India detail investor losses dating back to 2016.

Anupam Singh and Priyanka Rani, a couple in private city firms, were among the first to lodge an FIR against the company.

Singh said they were introduced to QNet by his wife’s relatives and the couple together lost approximately Rs 10 lakh in 2016.

“When the truth emerged, my wife’s relatives were untraceable and she’s facing trouble with her parents.

This company is ruining lives and relationships,” he said.

The Times reports “around 25” First Information Reports have been lodged with local police, who thus far appear to have failed to investigate further.

According to The Hindu, gathered protesters called on the Crime Investigation Department to investigate their claims.

Senior police officers confirmed that they had given their clearance for the cases to be transferred to the CID and Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar has written to DG&IGP Neelmani Raju over the issue.

However, the cases are yet to be transferred to the CID.

Praveen Sood, DGP, CID, said that they would take up a probe into the cases once they receive orders to the effect.

Alexa traffic estimates peg India as the fourth largest source of traffic to the QNet website.

Last week Turkish authorities named and shamed QNet as one of nineteen pyramid schemes operating in the country.

BehindMLM reviewed QNet late last year and, based on its business model and ongoing regulatory issues, concluded it was likely focused on affiliate autoship recruitment.

The company was founded by Vijay Eswaran. Eswaran, a wanted fugitive in India, operates QNet from Malaysia through a complex network of shell companies.

This corporate structure is believed to be the primary reason regulators around the world have had trouble shutting it down.