Multi-crore instant loan application and extortion racket with China link busted, over 100 apps involved

The Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) Unit of Special Cell of Delhi Police has busted various modules of an instant loan applications (also known as Chinese Loan application) scam. The action came after Delhi Police received hundreds of complaints on its NCRP Portal about instant loan applications disbursing loans at higher rates and extorting money using morphed nude pics even after payment of loan.

Taking cognizance, ​IFSO began analysing the complaints and found that more than 100 such apps are involved in the loan and extortion racket. Extensive technical analysis found that these apps sought malicious permissions from users and uploaded contacts, chats, messages and images of users to servers based in China and Hongkong after obtaining access permissions.

The agency also found out that the money was being routed to China through Hawala and cryptocurrencies. The apps were being hosted from AWS server and Ali Baba servers hosted in India but do not comply being American Companies, Special Cell press statement said. 

These apps are hosted on Google Play Store, websites and in advertisements, as well as are marketed using search engine optimization features of Google. Those in need of small loan amounts are lured and a small KYC is used to gain access. Loan is disbursed to the user within minutes while the app uploads user data on the servers in China and other parts. 

The users then start receiving calls from different numbers (procured on Fake IDs) which force them to pay more by threatening using morphed pics. The recovery agents operate from a call centre having access to the user data uploaded on Chinese servers. 

Money extorted is diverted to specific bank accounts and finally sent to China through Hawala or after purchasing cryptocurrencies after 2-3 hops. So far, over Rs 500 Crores have been syphoned off by the Chinese nationals, it was revealed.

Those coming for Rs 5,000-10,000 loans end up paying lakhs. Incidents have also been reported from different parts of the country where citizens are led to committing suicides.

The IFSO found that this network was spread across Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and other parts of India. 22 people were nabbed in simultaneous raids over two months. The police recovered items including 51 mobile phones, 25 Hard disks, 9 Laptops, 19 debit cards/credit cards, 3 Cars and Rs 4 Lakh cash.

The accused persons were operating on the behest of Chinese nationals, interrogation revealed. The persons arrested include Supreet K Shetty S/o Karunakar Shetty (Director), Mangal Mohan Dhanawade S/o Mohan Dhanawade (Manager), Akash Sonkamble S/o Yan Kuran (Team leader), Nikhil Yuvraj Kadam S/o Yuvraj kadam (Team Leader), Neha Dongre D/o Dinesh Dongree (HR), Vijay ERL r/o Bangalore, Karnataka (Account Holder), Sheikh Arfatuddin   r/o Bangalore, Karnataka (Account user), Navneet Kumar Bharti r/o Aurangabad, Bihar (Manages the finances), Rohit Kumar r/o Delhi (Account holder), Vividh r/o Begum Pur, Delhi (Account user), Puneet r/o Pitampura, Delhi (Account user ), Manish r/o Budh Vihar, Delhi (Account user), Divya W/o Punnet r/o Delhi ( Account user), Ravi Shanakar @ krishna r/o Jodhpur ( Manages the finances and recoveries), Sumit S/o Sudhir r/o Gurgaon, Haryana (Extortion caller ), Deepak Kumar @ Kartik S/O Ilam Singh r/o Saharanpur, UP( Team Leader of Extortion Group), Jitender S/o Dhanshyam Dass r/o Kapashera , Delhi( Whatsapp No provider), Harpreet Singh S/O Kuldeep Singh r/o Uttam Nagar, Delhi ( Manager of Extortion Group), Pankaj Kumar S/O Hansha Dutt r/o Uttam Nagar, Delhi( Manager of Extortion Group), Zuhaib Hassan S/o Riyasat Hasan R/o Lucknow (Manages activities with Chinese national), Deepak Dubey S/o Rama Shankar Dubey R/o Palam (Arranges accounts) and Anil Chahar S/o Sumer Singh R/o Jhajjar (Account holder). 

The modus operandi of the apps was explained by a flow diagram. Some apps involved were as follows: Raise cash app, PP money app, Rupees master app, Cash ray app, Mobipocket app, Papa money app, Infinity cash app, Kredit mango app, Kredit marvel app, CB loan app, Cash advance app, HDB loan app, Cash tree app, RAw loan app along with under process ones like Minute cash app, Cash light app, Cash fish app, HD credit app, Ruppes land app, Cash room app, Rupee loan app, Well Kredit app. 

Chinese instant loan apps linked to Lucknow based extortion call centre included Cash Port, RupeeWay, LoanCube, WowRupee, SmartWallet, GiantWallet, HiRupee, SwiftRupee, Walletwin, Fishclub, Yeahcash, ImLoan, Growtree, MagicBalance, Yocash, FortuneTree and Supercoin.

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(With inputs from Special Cell, Delhi)