Four people, including a Chinese national, of a gang have been arrested in an instant loan apps fraud case at Cyberabad. The arrest was following a raid by the Cyber Crime Police of Cyberabad at a call centre named Cubevo Technology Private Limited (Skyline) located in the city.
According to the police, its head office named "Skyline Innovations Technologies India Private Limited'' is located in Delhi. It is registered in ROC, Gurgaon and its directors are Chinese national Zixia Zhang and Umapati Ajay. The company has developed 11 instant loan applications, which offered loans to individuals and collect huge repayments (including interest, processing charges, GST, Default charges and once loan period is over they charge 1 per cent penalty) and also resort to systematic abusing, harassing, threatening of the defaulters through call centers run by them. They even blackmail the borrowers by sending fake legal notices to their relatives and family members.
Recently, Cyber Crime Police Station, Cyberabad has registered eight cases against these loan applications.
According to police, On December 17 a complaint was received from a person in which he stated that due to his financial needs he searched in Google and downloaded the instant loan app and uploaded Aadhaar card, PAN card, self-authentication photo, three months bank statement, and took a loan of Rs 2,015 for 7 days and after deducting the amount of Rs 415 for GST and processing fee, they disbursed Rs 1600 as loan amount on August 25. After that he received calls from different mobile numbers and advised to take an instant loan from their applications.
Reportedly, he took a total loan amount of Rs 1,20,000 from 28 instant loan applications. Even though he paid the loan amount of Rs 2,00,000 with interest, he received calls from different mobile numbers and tele callers started making abusive and threatening calls and also blackmailed him of sending legal notices. Therefore, he requested to take the necessary action. On the basis of the above complaint, a case has been registered, police said.
Reportedly, the accused Zixia Zhang and Umapati Ajay are on the run. The arrested include Yi Bai Dennis, a Chinese national, resident at Delhi, a native of Jiangxi, Shanghai, southwest China, Satya Pal Khyalia, resident of Delhi native of Sikhar District, Rajasthan, Aniriddh Malhotra, resident of Hyderabad, a native of Rajasthan, and Murathoti Richie Hemanth Seth resident of Hyderabad native of Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh.
List of loan applications are Loan Gram, Cash Train, Cash Bus, AAA Cash, Super Cash, Mint Cash, Happy Cash, Loan Card, Repay One, Money Box, Monkey box, etc.
These applications are developed in such a way that on installing these apps they get access to the contacts, mobile information and other data on the device. These applications collect the Id proofs, PAN card, KYC documents, and bank account details of the customers.
They check the genuineness of the documents and disburse small amounts in the form of a loan to their bank accounts by debiting the processing charges and GST i.e., 25-30 per cent in advance. Loans are given for either seven days or 15 days.
The police are also trying to ascertain if these applications are linked to any NBFC or not.
The Cyber Crime Police Station, Cyberabad has registered at least eight cases against these loan applications in the recent past. The raid at the call centre was part of the investigation and further probe is on.
(With inputs from agencies)
