Delhi: Eight held for extortion using ‘loan app’

During investigation, police found that the accused installed malware on the victims’ phones and hacked them. They accessed personal data and used it to extort their victims, said police.

DCP K P S Malhotra said they received a complaint from a woman alleging that she was being threatened by unknown persons who had sent her morphed pictures to her family and friends through social media: “She told police she had taken a loan through an app and repaid it. Soon after, she started getting threatening WhatsApp calls and messages from the app’s employees. We found that that the alleged scamsters were using the profile picture of a senior police officer.”

Malhotra said the loan app was analysed and it was found to be ‘malicious’ — it would steal a person’s details, contact/pictures and send them to a third party.

“Money trails of the alleged transaction were established and it was found that the money was being transferred to a current account opened in the name of (a company)… the account was found in the name of (one of the accused). In the alleged account, Rs 8.45 crore was credited in just around 15 days and the same was transferred to other accounts simultaneously,” Malhotra said.

Raids were conducted and four men were arrested. On their instance, two persons, including a woman, were arrested. “Later, one more accused was arrested from Jodhpur. He is the mastermind in India who provided bank accounts to the alleged Chinese national, who was arrested from Jodhpur. We found that the cheated amount was being sent to China through cryptocurrency,” Malhotra said. The other two accused were arrested later, he said.