Chinese loan app racket: Rachakonda police nab five of inter-state gang in Haryana

HYDERABAD: Cyber Crime team of Rachakonda police have arrested five members of an inter-state gang of fraudsters operating from Haryana who are harassing loan borrowers for financial exploitation. The police also seized three laptops, six mobile phones, 18 sim cards, 11 debit cards and Rs 1.50 lakh from them.

Disclosing the case details to media here on Wednesday, Rachakonda Commissioner of Police DS Chauhan said that the five accused were identified as Ashuthosh Mishra, LovemeetSaini, Prashant Kumar Tanwar, Prince Pal and Vikas Sharma. All the accused came in contact with Gina, a Chinese national on Telegram who provided links to them containing the details of loan app borrowers. Gina consistently provided them with a daily link, user ID, and password containing the personal information of the loan app borrowers, he said.

The CP said that after receiving the link from Gina, the accused used to send explicit and threatening messages to the borrowers and their contacts through WhatsApp, often including morphed indecent photos featuring the borrowers' faces for extracting money. As part of their illegal activities, they provided an instant loan of Rs 10,500 to Shaik Abdul Bari, through ‘Handy Loan App’ and extracted a total amount of Rs 2.49 lakh by circulating morphed photos and threatening calls to contacts of the victim, he said.

“As part of our investigation, the police gathered all technical evidence and identified the fraudsters carrying out the crime from Gurgaon, Haryana. Then, the police along with a team proceeded to Gurgaon and arrested the five accused at their crime place. After completion of due procedure of law, the accused are brought to Hyderabad and produced before the Court,” Chauhan said.

As per the preliminary technical analysis of the seized mobile phones, SIM cards, IMEI numbers of the accused, the police found that the accused persons were also involved in cases at Rachakonda, Cyberabad and other National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) reported across India, he added.

Caution: When applying for a loan through a digital lender, verify its authenticity to ensure the safety of your personal information and funds. For reporting cybercrime, please contact helpline number 1930 or register the case at cyber crime website.