Delhi – Two months of operation by the Delhi Police, busted an instant loan-cum-extortion racket amounting to over Rs500 crore and arrested 22 people from different parts of the country, officials said on Saturday. The gang seems to be operated by Chinese nationals and the extorted money routed to China through hawala and cryptocurrencies, Police said. The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) busted various modules of instant loan applications.

The Delhi police received hundreds of complaints regarding the instant loan applications. The complaints stated that instant loan apps  disbursed loans at higher rates. Even after payment of loan, money was extorted using morphed obsene images, said Deputy Commissioner of Police KPS Malhotra. According to the police, the gang based out of a call centre in Lucknow used the applications to provide small amounts of loan. Once the user downloaded the applications and granted permissions to the app, they would get the loan money credited to their account within minutes.

These apps sought malicious permissions from users. Once access was granted to the users’ contacts, chats, messages and images, the gang used to upload sensitive information to servers based in China and Hong Kong. The applications were developed in the garb of providing small amounts of loan. The user would download one of such applications, grant permissions to the app and the loan money  gets credited to his account within minutes.

"The IFSO took cognizance of the same and started analysing the complaints during which it was found that more than 100 such apps are involved in the loan and extortion racket," Malhotra said.

The money collected was diverted to specific bank accounts, sent to China through Hawala or after purchasing cryptocurrencies.

"People who were in dire need of a small loan ranging from Rs5,000 to 10,000 are coerced to pay lakhs," the official claimed.

The financial trial revealed that multiple accounts were being used to extort money. Each account had transactions of more than Rs1 crore was being credited daily. Identities of a few Chinese nationals are confirmed and efforts are being made to trace and arrest them.
-Net18 / Zeebiz