HYDERABAD: An eight-member gang that allegedly duped several persons in a large-scale loan fraud was apprehended on Thursday by the Cyber Security Bureau of Wanaparthy in coordination with the Kothakota police.
According to police, the accused persons, who were spread across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, primarily targeted Telugu-speaking individuals and scammed them in the name of Mudra and Dhani loans.
They have been linked to 55 FIR cases registered across different states and 373 complaints reported on the cybercrime portal, added police.
Police said that their scams came to light after a resident of Kothakota registered a complaint against them through the national toll-free number 1930.
On January 11, the victim had applied for a PM Vishwakarma community work loan of Rs 1 lakh at a Mee seva center in Kothakota. Six months later, he received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number asking him to pay a fee to sanction the loan. He paid an amount of Rs 12,250 to the person using two UPI apps, said police.
However, when he was contacted again for an additional fee of Rs 9,000, he refused to pay them. Later, when he attempted to contact the person, they did not respond, added police.
Learning that he was defrauded, he sought legal action against the offenders. Based on critical clues, the police arrested the gang and seized 26 mobile phones.