New Delhi: The Delhi Police has busted more than 100 Chinese apps used by the gang that extorted crores of money from people on the pretext of providing instant loans at low interest rates.
A Chinese-based gang has been scamming people in Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and other states of the country by advertising on websites that they offer very low interest, instant loans and no interest for 90 days.
The gang used more than 100 cell phone apps to make these loans. All these apps are powered by servers in China and Hong Kong.
After receiving the customer personal details (KOIC), the loan amount is credited to the customer’s bank account within minutes. Those who claimed low interest loans, after granting the loan, calculated the interest on a daily basis and charged the borrowers a high amount. Even those who took loans of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 were forced to pay up to Rs 1 lakh.
While downloading these apps, the apps ask for permission to access contact numbers, photo gallery and other personal details of the customer’s cell phone. Once the borrower approves, all the personal details on his cell phone go to Chinese servers.
Zixia Zhang and Lu Rong from China have run the business as a corporate entity. Finance committee, technical committee and money collection committee are functioning under them.
If the borrower does not repay the additional interest amount, a group of borrowers and their relatives and friends are called by tele callers to force them to repay the loan. In case of non-payment, the photo gallery on the borrower’s cell phone was converted into pornographic images and sent to the customer forcing him to repay the money.
Delhi Police received many complaints about this. Subsequently, the Delhi Police conducted an investigation for more than 2 months and found this gang.
Delhi Police Deputy Commissioner KPS Malhotra said about this. We have found and disabled more than 100 Chinese apps involved in financial fraud by providing loans to people. 22 people have been arrested in this connection. Chinese companies are directly involved in this financial fraud. We have seized 51 cell phones, 25 hard disks, 9 lap-tops with loads of data, 19 debit and credit cards, 3 cars and Rs.4 lakh cash from the gang.
We have the passport details of the Chinese gang behind this loan scam. We are trying to find them based on this. This is what he said.