Chinese loan fraud call centre busted in Delhi, 18 held

New Delhi: Delhi police has arrested 18 persons including seven women and busted a Chinese loan fraud call centre operating under the guise of prominent finance companies in the national Capital, an official said on Friday.

According to police, a complaint on MHA Cyber Crime Reporting Portal was received in Cyber North police station in which the complainant, a resident of Manju Ka Tila, alleged that on February 25, a call was received on the complainant’s mobile from a woman who threatened him saying, your daughter has taken a loan of Rs 3,500 which you should deposit through the link, otherwise your daughter’s nude photo will be made viral.

“After that someone edited his daughter’s photo with an obscene photo and sent it to the complainant’s WhatsApp number,” said Sagar Singh Kalsi, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).

In that picture, indecent words like “XXXXX, one night only 3000” were used, along with the phone numbers of the complainant and his daughter.

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During the investigation, the technical analysis of call detail records and money trail was carried out and surveillance of suspect mobile numbers which zeroed on the location of alleged calling number Sangam Vihar, Delhi.

“A raid was conducted in Sangam Vihar area and one Renu was apprehended, who revealed that she is working at a call centre, which is situated at East Kailash. The details provided by the woman matched with the day time location of the suspect number,” said the official.

Further raid was conducted in East Kailash, where a proper call centre was found running with around 50 people working and on questioning with the staff, it was found that half of the employees were working for prominent finance companies and under their cover, the other employees were working on Chinese Loan Fraud Apps.

“Total 17 people who were found working on the App have been apprehended. The team leader Amit, a resident of Sarita Vihar, was arrested and is presently on police remand. However, the main accused namely Mohsin and his accomplices are still absconding and raids are being conducted to nab them,” said the official.

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The official said that Amit and Khan were earlier working in call centres for EMI loan reminders of Bajaj and IDFC but due to less income, they opted for call centres of fake Chinese loan recovery apps.

“Amit was deployed as a leader over the call centre employees and Mohsin Khan and his friend Firdaus used to provide the login ID and password for these fake Chinese apps. The call centre employees used to make calls through VOIP Sim Box Gateway devices installed by Mohsin, who used to change it frequently to dodge police action,” said the official.

“Payments were made by the complainants at the link provided in the Chinese apps and Mohsin used to get his share from his seniors. Many desktops, laptops and mobile phones have been recovered from the alleged call centre, data from which has been extracted for technical analysis,” said the official.