Today’s Times of India, Bangalore edition carries a full page Ad asking public to “Invest in Crypto Currency this festive season”
The publication is an advertorial feature under the name of Prafull Sawant with email ID response.mumbai@timesgroup.com.
The feature promotes Bitcoin as an “investible digital currency” and speaks of 300% appreciation, not likely to come down in value etc.
Though a mention has been made that RBI has cautioned user’s against the risks, the perception sought to be created by this ad is clearly to promote Crypto currencies and Bitcoin as an alternative to digital payment systems.
The Advertisement is unethical and the Advertisement Council of India should also look into it and take appropriate action.
In the meantime, it seems that the advertisers “ico.iworldonline.com” appear to have clearly dared Mr Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Arun Jaitely speaking about elimination of Black money from India. Mr Modi and others should realize that we cannot allow promotion of Bitcoin and at the same breath talk of eliminating Black money.
Also note that the advertisement is coming from an “ico” umbrella. The domain has been registered by one “Alex Fedosseev, of , San Jose California” who maintains the site shown below.
This indicates that this advertiser is interested in promoting Initial Coin Offerings of other Crypto Currencies also.
The URL given in the advertisement also redirects to the following page.
This is a recipe for disaster as far as investors are concerned.
RBI and Finance Ministry cannot allow this promotion.
If therefore no action is taken immediately to stop this promotion, I would consider Mr Arun Jaiteley as Finance Minister and Mr Urjit Patel as RBI Governor personally liable for any losses that investors may suffer as a consequence of this advertisement.
I have separately sent e-mail notices to the concerned persons.
If Mr Modi cannot save India from Bitcoins, then we can only ask God to save India.
I wish other persons who genuinely are concerned with “Honest Tax payer’s Concerns” take this up further to those in the Government who seem to be deaf and dumb in this respect.
Naavi
