17 held in Hyderabad loan scam, Chinese hand seen
HYDERABAD: Cracking down on the activities of illegal online loan apps fleecing innocent people, Hyderabad police arrested 11 persons and Cyberabad police arrested six persons, including a US returnee, on Tuesday. Police found that the arrested persons in Gurgaon and in the city were working under instructions from their handlers in Indonesia. The loan app organisers have been charging an exorbitant interest of up to 50 per cent per annum.
Hyderabad cyber crime teams simultaneously raided two locations in Gurgaon and three locations in the city, where call centres working for the illegal loan apps were functioning. These call centres were run on behalf of Liufang Technologies Pvt Ltd, Hotful Technologies Pvt Ltd, Pinprint Technologies and Nabloom Technologies Pvt Ltd, with registered offices in Bengaluru.
Eleven persons heading these centres and their senior employees were arrested, said Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar. He added that they found a Chinese passport during the raids in Gurgaon, indicating that Chinese firms could be behind the illegal loan apps.
Similar to gaming scam
Similar to the gaming app scam unearthed by the Hyderabad cyber crime wing where huge amounts were transferred to shell companies and to companies abroad, amounts from these loan apps were also diverted to shell companies. So far, 10 bank accounts and 80 e-wallets operated by the accused firms have been identified.
Cyberabad Commissioner VC Sajjanar said
K Sharath Chandra had been running two companies in Hyderabad, with 110 employees and the companies have an agreement with nine NBFCs, for disbursing loans. Two apps, Cash Mama and Loan Zone, are tied up with NBFCs, while another app Dhana Dhan is not linked to any NBFC. They have disbursed loans to around 1.5 lakh customers.
18 bank accounts frozen
“The transactions are run through two types of bank accounts, one used for disbursing loan amounts and another account for loan recovery options. Eighteen bank accounts having deposits of `1.52 crore have been frozen for further investigation,” he said.
Apps employed 1,100 tele-callers
Police found that loan app firms had employed hundreds of youngsters to work as tele-callers at their call centres. As many as 600 tele-callers were found in two call centres at Gurgaon, and 500 in Hyderabad. The two offices raided by Cyberabad police at Raidurgam had 110 employees. Police found that the callers were in the age group of 19-25 and were college dropouts
Mysterious Chinese visitor
The Hyderabad cyber crime police found that a Chinese national, a woman in her late 30s, had visited the city three months ago and inspected the call centres. However, they could not find further details about the visitor as the heads of the call centres did not reveal much about her. Police had also found the passport of a Chinese national during the raids on a call centre in Gurgaon
Central probe sought against loan apps
After various instances of harassment by online loan apps came to light, J Sagar Rao and B Srinivas Goud filed a complaint before the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking a probe by Central investigation agencies against the illegal apps and their recovery agents. They also urged the Ministry to block the illegal apps and provide a toll-free number for the public to lodge grievances. In their complaint, they stated that the financial stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic forced a large number of private employees, unemployed youths, and students to take loans through mobile apps.