22 Arrested In Rs 500 Cr Chinese Loan App Extortion Racket, Which Spread Wings In Odisha Too

New Delhi: With the arrest of 22 persons from different parts of the country, the Delhi Police has claimed to have busted a loan-cum-extortion racket to the tune of over Rs 500 crore. The racket has also spread its tentacles in states like Odisha, reports said.

After a two-month long operation by the Delhi police, it was found that the gang operated at the behest of some Chinese nationals and transferred the extorted money to China through hawala route and cryptocurrencies, they said.

The loan app racket spread its tentacles in Odisha too. It may be recalled that some Chinese nationals are wanted by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police in in connection with loan app racket. The Bureau of Immigration (BOI) has also issued lookout circular against at least four Chinese nationals for defrauding lakhs of people through illegal digital loan app, police said.

A Chinese national, identified as Liu Yi, wanted by the EOW of Odisha Police in connection with a loan app racket and against whom the BOI has issued a lookout circular (LOC), was in Nepal recently, according to a report. He is yet to be arrested.

BOI has also issued a lookout circular against three other Chinese nationals — Shen Zhenhua alias Tony of Jiangsu, Quan Hongwei alias Paul of Jiangsu, and Yang Haiying alias Doris of Sichuan — following a request from EOW of Odisha Police.

Delhi police received a large number of complaints alleging that loans were being approved instantly at high interest rates. Even after full recovery of the loan amount together with interest, the gang continued to extort more money from the people using their morphed nude pictures.

Taking cognisance of the complaints, the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operation (IFSO) of the Delhi Police found that more than 100 such applications were involved in the racket, they said.

After getting access to the users’ contacts, chats, messages and images through these apps, the gang used to upload sensitive information to servers based in China and Hong Kong, police said.

The users used to download such applications, developed in the garb of providing small amounts of loan, and grant permissions to the app for access. The loan money used to get credited to the account within minutes.

The users would then start receiving calls from different numbers that were procured on fake IDs, threatening that their morphed nude pictures would be uploaded on the internet if they failed pay more money, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO) K P S Malhotra was quoted by NDTV as saying.

The users would pay the money due to fear. The money was later sent to China through hawala or cryptocurrencies.