This is one very interesting scam that has snatched the iPhone dreams of right-wingers on Twitter. One guy named Neel Patel emerged on Twitter in December 2019, Hindutva dogma in one hand and attractive schemes in the other. This was an exciting cocktail of Hindutva and hoax. All the blind rightwing influencers on Twitter took to Patel as demi god because some of them received the iPhone from him, one of them even asked for iPad and got fulfilled his wish, bargain was very money-spinning for Patel. Few influencers were trapped by few iPhones and he used them for advertising his offers, with in no time he could accumulate huge money. All eyes were on businessman Hiteshkumar Gordhanbhai Patel, alias Neel Patel, the founder of Squeaks, a social media platform apparently conceived for rightwing voices. Users alleged that Squeaks and its sister venture, NaaradPay, an online payment company, had swindled users of crores of rupees through a supposed scheme providing Apple iPhones for cheap.
Overnight he became a blue eyed boy of the Modi-loving clan, and Patel was declared as Hindu-nationalist digital personality. He was followed by film director Vivek Agnihotri, IPL founder and escapee Lalit Modi, and BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain. His followers are so-called buyers of iPhone and did not check the credentials of Patel because he was Hindu nationalist and Modi supporter. When this man made tall claims those claims were rewetted and endorsed by many that made many gullible to such offers.
Patel had a beautiful script in the background to influence and fool his prey and his worshipers that he was a Kentucky-based entrepreneur who drove cabs in the US until 2012. His life changed, when he won a lottery worth $350 million that year. He began dealing in Bitcoin and Ethereum and operating on a forex trading website called Penny Robot. He had 300 employees in his companies.
Patel had claimed to have received orders for 8,000 iPhones. When the phones did not arrive, people began applying for refunds. Naturally, even that took weeks. Finally FIR was registered against him.
Twitter has reportedly suspended account of Neel Patel (@nto1927) and his associated handles @SqueaksMedia and @NaaradPay.
Journalist Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) tweeted, “.@MumbaiPolice that they should investigate IT cell “influencers”, @BJP4India members, so called RW journalists all begging for cash & freebies in the #IPhoneScam What’s app chats are proof the same lot part of the celebrity tweets @AnilDeshmukhNCP.”
The iphone scam is being perpetrated by scamsters in foreign countries & most of the beneficiaries are right wing influencers.@bainjal we have ordered a comprehensive enquiry & entrusted it to IGP Maharashtra Cyber for further lawful action. https://t.co/cc6qQGLjut
— ANIL DESHMUKH (@AnilDeshmukhNCP) February 21, 2021
In reply Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh tweeted that, “The iPhone scam is being perpetrated by scamsters in foreign countries & most of the beneficiaries are right wing influencers. We have ordered a comprehensive enquiry & entrusted it to IGP Maharashtra Cyber for further lawful action.”
Nishant Singh (@nishant_india) tweeted, “Understand the methodology: If he collects money for 100 iPhones, he delivers iPhone to 20-30 people while prioritizing deliveries to Twitter influencers. The remaining 70 folks – who are probably not influencers – would get completely duped. Nothing ever reaches to them.”
He would later ask the influencers to make a tweet that they have received their gifts (iPhones) to bring in more victims.
That way some keep singing praises of him while others cuss him.
— Nishant (@nishant_india) February 16, 2021
Nishant Singh has uploaded a video on YouTube and made a detailed explainer on this whole scam and what he has dug on Neel Patel, a US-based businessman.
