Delhi: Loan app fraud busted, Chinese woman among two held

New Delhi: Two people, including a Chinese woman, were arrested for allegedly extorting money from people using instant loan applications, police said on Wednesday.

The accused have been identified as Yu Zhang (52), a Chinese citizen, and Vineet Jhaver (38), a resident of Haryana, they said.

Three laptops, 13 mobile phones, seven credit and debit cards among others were recovered from their possession, police said.

According to police, they received several complaints that instant loan applications are disbursing loans at higher rates and even after payment of the dues, they were also extorting money by morphing pictures sourced from the user's mobile after gaining access to it.

During the analysis of the complaints, it was found that over 100 such applications are involved in the loan and extortion racket and all the apps were seeking access to personal data from the user, a senior police officer said.

After obtaining access to personal data like contacts, chats, messages, and images of the user, the same were being uploaded to the servers in India and abroad, police said.

The user, in need of an instant small loan, downloads the applications and grants permission to it after a small KYC (only uploading of Aadhar card, PAN card, and a live photograph). Following this, the loan is disbursed within minutes to the bank account of the user, they said.

The application started uploading the contact lists, chats, and images of the user to the servers hosted in India and abroad. The data of the customers is shared with various modules of the gangs, the police said.

Later, the customer started receiving calls forcing him to pay more by threatening him using the morphed/obscene pictures, they said.

It was noticed that a person in need of Rs 5,000 to 10,000 is being forced to pay even in lakhs. Many incidents of citizens committing suicides were even reported from other parts of the country, police said.

The financial trail revealed that multiple mule accounts were being used for getting the amount. In each of the accounts, huge transactions were found to be credited every day, they said.

During the investigation, the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operation unit (IFSO) of Delhi Police registered cases on these apps and earlier arrested 22 people, the officer said.

"It was found that the network is spread across Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and other parts of the country. Earlier in similar matters, 22 people were arrested,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO) Prashant Gautam said.

“The mastermind of the present case one Chinese national, along with her associate, has also been arrested," he said.

The accused revealed that they are operating at the behest of other Chinese nationals. The application analysis has also revealed that some of them were uploaded from China, Gautam said.

Identities of other Chinese nationals in these cases are being established and efforts are being made to arrest them, he said.

So far, more than Rs 150 crores have been siphoned off through accounts provided by Jhaver and Zhang, the DCP said.