Loan app crooks operated from swanky offices in NCR

VADODARA: Amid the plush buildings housing corporate headquarters in the national capital region (NCR), a centre specializing in morphing photos and blackmailing people, had been operating its cladestine business unhindered for months.
Three natives of Bihar were running a proper centre where they morphed photos and even made calls to blackmail the people who took loan from the fraud loan apps.
“It was a sophisticated operation where the gang had undergone training in morphing photographs in such a manner that the pictures seemed very real. They connived with two men from Nepal and also learnt the morphing and editing of photos,” said Hardik Makadia, ACP (cybercrime), Vadodara.
Their only job was to morph photos of the loan app victims in obscene manner and blackmail them to extort money.
“The trio is part of a racket that is being run by the Chinese gangs. They don’t just morph photos but also call up the victims and threaten them. The trio had become experts in this modus operandi and earned a hefty amount through commission they got on the money extorted from the victims,” the police said.
The Vadodara cybercrime sleuths have tracked down the trio and may arrest them soon. “They have also worked with a loan app in the past to understand its working and how the loans are given as well as recovered. This gang had rented a property in NCR and was operating from there,” Makadia told TOI. Investigations into a complaint of extortion and blackmailing by a citizen led the police to this trio. The cops traced the numbers from which calls and messages were done to the victim who had taken a loan from a mobile app.
Despite the victim paying three times more the loan he had taken, the gang morphed his photos and threatened to make them viral if he didn’t pay up more money.