In an operation that lasted over two months, the Delhi Police Cyber Cell busted a fake loan-cum-extortion scam of more than ₹500 crore and arrested 22 people from different parts of the country, police officers said on Saturday.
The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) busted a gang that lured people with fake loan schemes and later extorted money from them using their personal data. The money was being routed to their associates in China through cryptocurrency and hawala.
According to the police, hundreds of complaints were lodged alleging that loans were being passed at higher interest rates and even after complete recovery of the funds, the loan recipients were being blackmailed through morphed nude photos.
The IFSO unit took cognisance of these complaints, and during analysis found that more than 100 such applications were being threatened by the gang.
These apps sought permissions from the users and after obtaining access to their contacts, chats, messages and images, the gang used to upload sensitive information to servers based in China and Hong Kong, a senior police officer said.
The applications were developed in the garb of providing small amounts of loan. The user would download one of such application, grant permissions to the app and the loan money used to get credited to their account within minutes, the officer said.
Fake nude photos
The users would then begin receiving calls from different numbers that were procured on fake IDs, and the callers would extort money threatening that their morphed nude photos would be uploaded on the Internet if they failed to heed to the demand, Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO) K.P.S Malhotra said.
Due to social fear and stigma, the users used to pay the money, which was later sent to China through hawala or cryptocurrencies, the DCP said.
A person who was in dire need of a small loan of ₹5,000-₹10,000 was being forced to pay lakhs of rupees. This has led to many suicides as well, police said.
The gang used multiple accounts and each of the accounts received more than ₹1 crore per day, they said.
The police found the network was spread across Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and other States. The 22 people, including two women, were nabbed from different parts of the country, Mr. Malhotra said.
During the interrogation, they revealed that they operated at the behest of some Chinese nationals. All the data regarding the recoveries were being provided from the servers in China. Identities of a few Chinese nationals have been confirmed and efforts are being made to trace and arrest them, the police said.
After the crackdown, the operatives have been shifting their recovery call centres to Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. So far, more than ₹500 crore have been siphoned off, the police added.
Published - August 21, 2022 01:24 am IST
