Authorities in India have shut down Serfa Marketing Private Limited, a QNet spinoff launched by former affiliate Baki Srinivas Reddy.

Reddy (right) joined QNet and went on to lose just under $20,000 USD.

Cyberabad police claim

with the experience (Reddy) gained (in QNet), he set up his own MLM business SERFA Marketing in Visakhapatnam with branches in over 16 States.

Visakhapatnam is the financial capital of Andhra Pradesh, a state on India’s east coast.

Serfa Marketing Private Limited was launched in 2018 and saw affiliates pay an Rs. 12,000 fee to sign up ($168 USD).

Commissions were paid on the recruitment of new affiliates.

Like QNet, Serfa Marketing offered household products in exchange for fees. Both companies adopted the product-based pyramid model.

A few weeks ago Indian authorities began cracking down on QNet in earnest.

Authorities began investigating Serfa Marketing following a complaint filed in Hyderabad.

This lead to the arrest of Baki Reddy, who has been charged violating the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act.

A report in the Hindu Business Line, quoting Cyberabad Commissioner V C Sajjanar, states;

The police have cautioned the public not to fall prey to such money circulation schemes that are being promoted under the garb of multi-level marketing, network marketing, referral marketing, chain marketing and direct selling.

“Whatever may be the name, they are all money circulation schemes,” (Sajjanar) warned.

Around five thousand people across around sixteen states are believed to have signed up as Serfa Marketing affiliates.

Collective losses by Reddy’s victims have yet to be made public.

At the time of publication Serfa Marketing’s website is still online. Alexa website traffic estimates however suggest the scheme collapsed some time ago.