Face2News/Chandigarh

Cyber Cell Police  achieved major success with the arrest of a Chinese national who was overstaying the visa period and kingpin of an illegal instant loan app racket being run with a battery of 60 people under him. 20 more accused have been arrested in a marathon 10-day operation spanning across 5 States.

This breakthrough was achieved under the leadership of Sh. Ketan Bansal, SP, PSCyber Crime, UT, Chandigarh and under the close guidance of Sh. A Venkatesh,  DSP/PS-CC & IT UT, Chandigarh and under the supervision of Insp. Ranjit Singh, SHO, PS Cyber Crime, Sec.17, Chandigarh by busting a racket of online APP LOAN fraud, in which 21 accused ( Including one Chinese) are arrested in the said cases.

The first case FIR No. 33 dated 03.09.2022 U/S 384, 468, 471, 420, 509, 120B IPC PS- Cyber Crime, Chandigarh registered on the complaint of Sh. Arvind Kumar, in which he received a link through SMS on his mobile for a loan, as he clicked on the link Hugo Loan application got installed and during installation, the app seek access to his contacts, gallery etc. and he allow the same after he checked his eligibility for a loan on Hugo app and filled his details also and after that eligibility of loan Rs. 3500/- show on the app but he has not applied for any loan and uninstalled the application.

After that, he received threatening calls and SMS on WhatsApp through different virtual numbers and he said that he has not taken any loan from any app but they are sending morphed nude pictures of his family and blackmailing him for money. After that, he received a call from another mobile number that send the money otherwise they will circulate their nude pictures to his contacts. After that he send Rs. 2045/- on 24.8.2022 and Rs. 3500/- on 30.8.2022 but still they are threatening to viral the pictures on social media and demanding more money.

Special teams conducted raids in Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Bihar & Jharkhand, U.P and total 21 accused are arrested (13 agents/ callers from Delhi NCR, 5 Managers/ Team Leaders from Delhi NCR, Bihar & Jharkhand, 2 persons Wan Cheng, Anshul Kumar arrested from Delhi NCR are managing the money) and Parwej Alam @ Jitu Bhadana @ Sonu Bhadana arrested from Ranchi, Jharkhand is the main kingpin in India who manage all domains of all online loan applications i.e Hugo Loan, Cashfree, Fly Cash, Cash coin, AA Loan. Further, during the investigation Rs. 17.31 Lakhs cheated money from different online loan applications are recovered from the possession of Wan Chengua and Anshul Kumar.

The second case FIR No. FIR No. 28 dated 30.08.2022 U/S 384, 419, 420, 120B IPC PS- Cyber Crime, Chandigarh registered on the complaint of Vinit Kumar in which he alleged that he saw an advertisement on his Facebook the instant loan app namely the AA LOAN APP and the same was installed by him. He got a loan of a small amount of INR 2700/- for a short period of 3-5 days.

Later he paid INR 5000 with high charges through UPI Payment. On 23.08.2022, he again received a call from the mobile number that his loan payment is pending when he told the caller that he has already paid the whole amount. 

The victim was forced to deposit the loan amount again and again, and when he denied the same, they start sending abusive messaging and es, nude-morphed photos of the victim and his family to the WhatsApp contacts of the Victim's mobile.

For the investigation of the said cases police teams of Insp Ranjit Singh(SHO, PSCC), SI Krishan Dev Singh, SI Parminder Singh, and ASI Balwan Singh were constituted who conducted raids in various states i.e. Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Bihar & Jharkhand, U.P and total 21 accused are arrested (13 agents/ callers from Delhi NCR, 5 Managers/ Team Leaders from Delhi NCR, Bihar & Jharkhand, 2 persons Wan Cheng, Anshul Kumar arrested from Delhi NCR are managing the money) and Parwej Alam @ Jitu Bhadana @ Sonu Bhadana arrested from Ranchi, Jharkhand is the main kingpin in India who manage all domains of all online loan applications i.e Hugo Loan, Cashfree, Fly Cash, Cash coin, AA Loan. Further, during the investigation Rs. 17.31 Lakhs cheated money from different online loan applications are recovered from the possession of Wan Chengua and Anshul Kumar.

Further, upon checking the Passport and Visa Wan Chengua found expired in the year 2020 and he is residing illegally in India. 

MODUS OPERANDI: The modus operandi of this case is that nowadays lots of easy loan applications are available on the Google play store, which are alluring people for small amounts of loans for the short period as soon as people installed this app and give certain permission, these apps take access of their phone contacts, Gallery and other applications. Further, the victim gets credited the small amount of loan through UPI transaction with High charges. After that, these loan applications start forcing people to pay loans after two or three days. So, the victim pays the loan amount  before the due date, but these loan applications continuously force them to deposit more money or repay the loan amount again and again by showing the loan amount pending in their application. When people deny the same these loan apps start sending abusive messages and nude morphed pictures/videos of victims and their families to WhatsApp contacts victims.

As the access Victim's phone contacts, gallery and other sensitive information are already with them, which was taken at the time of installation of the loan application. During the investigation, it came to light that the alleged instant loan application is developed and run by Chinese people on China servers.

Further these  people allure job needy people in India and hire them on a specific salary as call centre jobs and trained them how to blackmail people through online loan applications these recruited people victims and force, blackmail & threaten the people or deposit money again and again.

In this way, these loan applications blackmailing, threaten & harassing people, and a lot of innocent people are becoming victims of these loan applications and depositing their hard-earned money in different banks account.

Even in some states, people suicide due to these online loan applications as their morphed nude pictures were circulated on social media by these loan agents.

RECOVERY: Cash Rs. 17.31 Lakhs 9 Laptops, 41 Mobile Phones, One Desktop Computer, Expired Passport Of Wan Cheng

CYBER TIP: 

➢ Do not take loans through loan-providing applications or untrusted sources as they collect sensitive information from your mobile phone. ➢ Do not trust online applications or websites ➢ Do not trust advertisements for instant loans ➢ Do not click on links received through unknown sources ➢ Do not install any unauthorised application from an unknown source. ➢ Do not install any application which seeks the permission of your contacts, Gallery, Android software