Delhi, 21st August 2022: Delhi Police busted an instant loan-cum-extortion racket worth over Rs 500 crore and arrested 22 people from different parts of the country in an operation that lasted over two months. The strings of this gang are related to the neighboring country China and many Chinese citizens are also involved in it.
Giving information about this on Saturday, officials said that this gang operated at the behest of Chinese citizens and extortion money was being sent to China through hawala and cryptocurrency.
According to the police, hundreds of complaints were filed alleging that loans were being given at high interest rates and the gang used to extort money from people using their morphed pornographic pictures after full recovery of the amount including interest.
Sensitive information used to be put on servers in China and Hong Kong
The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operation (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police took cognizance of these complaints and during investigation found that more than 100 such complaints were received. A senior police officer said that the gang was seeking several unreasonable permissions from the app users. After gaining access to app users’ contacts, chats, messages and photos, the gang uploaded sensitive information to their servers in China and Hong Kong.
The apps were developed under the guise of providing loans in small amounts. The official said users would download one of such apps, give permission to the app and the loan amount would get credited to their account within minutes.
Loan borrowers used to get calls from different numbers
DCP (IFSO) KPS Malhotra said that thereafter the loan borrower would start getting calls from various numbers which were received on fake IDs, threatening to extort money if they did not pay Rs. If given, their morphed obscene pictures will be uploaded on the internet.
The DCP said that social stigma and stigma led to users paying them money, which was then sent to China through hawala or after buying cryptocurrencies.
Many people have committed suicide
A person who was in dire need of small loans ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 was forced to pay several lakhs in return. Police said that this has also led to several suicides. He said the gang used multiple accounts and received over Rs 1 crore per day in each account.
During interrogation, they revealed that they acted at the behest of Chinese nationals. All data regarding recovery was being made available from servers in that country. Police said the identities of some Chinese nationals have been confirmed and efforts are on to trace and arrest them.
Following the police action, the henchmen of this gang are shifting their recovery call centers to Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Police said that so far more than Rs 500 crore has been siphoned off by Chinese nationals.