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India's $4 smartphone declared a Ponzi scam

By Syed0145 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Freedom 251 First Look - The Dollar 4 Smartphone

The Freedom 251 is a 3G Android handset with a 4-inch display, a Qualcomm 1.3-GHz quad-core processor and 1 GB RAM. It was introduced a couple of weeks ago in India for the low, low price of 251 rupees (US$3.67). It sounds like a great deal for millions of people who couldn’t otherwise afford a smart phone.

But India MP Kirit Somaiya says he’s looked into the little-known company that makes the phone and says they’re Ponzi schemers.

“This is a huge scam, that is why I went through all the papers of the company. The government has informed Uttar Pradesh government to check the bonafide of the promoter. This is a Ponzi bogus company scam,” Somaiya told ANI. [Indian Express]

On Twitter, @Joydas posted photos of the Freedom 251, calling it a “Chinese Smartphone. Whitener used to Hide Name. Sold in garb of Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” campaign.”

The manufacturer, Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd., announced on its website that it is not taking new orders for the phone:

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