Hyderabad: Loan app fraudsters shift base to Nepal

Hyderabad: After last year’s crackdown on illegal instant loan apps and the Chinese angle coming to light, many of the loan fraudsters appear to have shifted to the Philippines and Nepal to hide their Chinese identity, preliminary investigations by the police into a few fresh cases indicated. “In recent days, we received a few complaints […]

Hyderabad: After last year’s crackdown on illegal instant loan apps and the Chinese angle coming to light, many of the loan fraudsters appear to have shifted to the Philippines and Nepal to hide their Chinese identity, preliminary investigations by the police into a few fresh cases indicated.

“In recent days, we received a few complaints from persons claiming they are harassed by executives of loan app companies. A preliminary probe into the cases indicated the servers and backend operations are in Nepal and the Philippines,” a Hyderabad Cybercrime official said.

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A year and a half ago, following a series of incidents of at least six borrowers ending their lives due to harassment by executives of loan app companies, the Telangana State Police launched a crackdown. In Hyderabad alone, around 50 cases were booked while an equal number was booked in the other districts. Teams had in fact raided call centres set up by loan app companies in Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad.

The police arrested around 100 persons, including Chinese nationals. A few of the key suspects however managed to leave the country before the police could arrest them.

The police in Hyderabad, Rachakonda and Cyberabad had frozen bank accounts where huge amounts running into several crores were deposited. Again in March this year, the police arrested two persons who were operating a call centre in Bengaluru with around 100 persons and providing short-term loans.

Explaining the modus operandi, Joint Commissioner of Police (Detective Department) Gajarao Bhupal said the suspects hosted loan apps in Google Play Store. “Whenever people download the apps, the fraudsters obtain permission for access to the gallery, contact list and locations before providing loans. If the borrower fails to repay, all forms of harassment start,” he said.

The police also noted that the app’s profits from the loan app fraud were being sent via crypto-currency to different accounts suspected to be held by foreign nationals. The Hyderabad, Rachakonda and Cyberabad police filed charge sheets in the cases and the cases are now under trial.

Now, it appears the app companies are back in business prompting the police to issue an advisory, asking people to stay away from instant loan apps and named at least 130 apps.

“It is a well-organised network involving crores of rupees. So if a handful of people are arrested, the main persons staying in other parts of the world will again resume the business by collaborating with other local persons in India,” another police official said.

The police are writing to Google Play Store asking to remove instant loan apps from their platform immediately to prevent harassment of borrowers.

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