CHENNAI: The Chennai city police have arrested four people, including two Chinese nationals, and busted an instant app-based money lending racket operating out of Bengaluru, following complaints from several people who were harassed through abusive phone calls, character assassination and threats.
The arrested were identified as S Pramoda, 28, of Doopanahalli, CR Pavan, 27, of Chikkanahally in Karnataka, Xia Ya Mau, 38, and Yuvan Lun, 28. They had employed over 100 people in their call centres to make abusive calls to retrieve loans offered through a dozen micro lending mobile phone applications, the police said. Laptops and mobile phones were seized from them.
“The employees were paid Rs 8,000 per month and given a target of 10 loan retrievals per day,” said a senior police officer from the Central Crime Branch who was part of the team that arrested the four. Two more suspects, Hong and Wandish, both Chinese nationals, fled to Singapore just two weeks ago and are suspected to be the masterminds behind the racket.
The police said Pramoda and Pavan came across an online advertisement posted by the Chinese gang to set up the call centre in Bengaluru, and approached them. “They arrived at a deal and the Bengaluru men’s role was to register the company and recruit callers, while the money to lend was arranged by the Chinese men,” said the Police Commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal.
Though the accused told investigation officers most micro-lending mobile phone applications were developed by one Nutham Ram, the police suspect the apps were developed by Chinese gangs in such a way to gain access to users’ contacts and galleries. “It is not clear where the money to lend comes from and where the money retrieved from the borrowers is going. Also, the concept of micro-lending apps became popular only after the lockdown was enforced. All roads lead to China, and investigations are on,” said the police officer.
It may be noted that the Hyderabad police too arrested a Chinese national among 16 people in connection with a loan app fraud, and registered 27 cases following at least three suicides over a month. However, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police registered a case based on a complaint from one Ganesan, of Vengaivasal, and four similar complaints have been forwarded to the CCB from Adyar police districts. Each district might have registered cases separately, said the police.
Ganesan came to know about the micro-lending apps through social media, and borrowed Rs 5,000. While he got Rs 3,500 after Rs 1,500 was deducted as interest for a week, he was unable to settle the loan by paying Rs 5,000 within a week. So, every week, he had to pay Rs 1,500 as interest. Ganesan ended up downloading different loan apps and borrowing from all of them. As the sum mounted, the apps in creased the interest by 2 per cent for every Rs 100 per day, said a senior official. “When he could not repay the loan, he started getting abusive calls from the lenders. His relatives also started getting calls enquiring about Ganesan, as the loan apps have access to the victim’s contacts.
Some of the apps handled by the call centre
◆ M Rupee ◆ My Cash ◆ Aurora Loan ◆ Quick Loan ◆ Dmoney ◆ Rapid Loan ◆ Eazy Cash ◆ New Rupee ◆ Rupee Loan