Mumbai teen offered top-up loans, duped 2, held

A 19-year-old was arrested for conniving with his 21-year-old brother and cheating people by offering them extra loan amount and taking money for documentation.

Omkar Korde, a commerce student, used to go to the residence of the victims to collect money for documentation from them as per the directions of his brother Akash Korde, who is yet to be arrested. “We received a tip-off on April 13 on calls made by fraudsters to customers who had taken loan from a finance company,” said an officer from Amboli police station.

“They used to call the customers using the company’s data that was leaked possibly by an insider. They used to tell them that as their record of repayment was good, the firm had decided to given them an additional loan of Rs2 lakh,” he added.

If the customers agree for a top-up loan, they used to tell him that Rs6,000 was needed to process the documentation. “The victims are mostly those who depend on loan for a big purchase. Akash used to get the details of the customers and call them. Omkar was told to collect the money from their house,” added the officer.

The police said Omkar has said he had cheated two people. A police informer received a call about the loan and alerted the cops. A team was formed comprising senior inspector Bharat Gaikwad and sub-inspector Nilesh Dhamne.

“Akash used to work with the same finance company and we suspect that he could have used his contacts to get the list of customers. He called up the officers investigating the case, boasting how he would get his brother out of custody,” added the officer.

Police suspect that the duo could have cheated more people.

“Apart from Akash, we are also looking for the person who shared the company’s database with them,” added the officer.