There are many fake call centers running in Gurugram, which allegedly collect money from people on the pretext of collecting loans. Hindustan TimesQuoting police officers.
Fraudsters are targeting people who have got money through Tatkal loan Mobile apps, especially Chinese apps, and defaulted to them.
According to officials, the cybercrime police station has received more than 200 such complaints since December last year. The police managed to arrest 38 people from Udyog Vihar in March after receiving 50 complaints against them. Some suspects who are former BPO employees were also arrested from Sohna Road.
“They call around 700 people daily to withdraw money from them. The gang has expressed the possibility of cheating people 10 crore in the last three years. He made an unexpected earning during the pandemic as many people lost their jobs and they wanted money in a hurry to meet their domestic needs,” the ACP said.
How do fraudsters work?
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Indeevar said that in many cases, fraudsters hire men and women to run call centres, and train them to dupe people. They are also trained to transform pictures. They are given a deduction of 25 per cent from the amount extorted.
The loan apps in question are not themselves secure. They can only be downloaded via a URL sent to a specific receiver and are not available on the Play Store or App Store.
When a victim downloads these, these gangs get access to the data saved in their phone. They then morph their photographs and send them to the victim and their relatives to extort money.
Since they also get access to the victim’s password, the fraudsters start using this data to trick them. In at least 20 cases, the police have revealed that the fraudsters transferred money from the victim’s bank accounts to their bank accounts and withdrew it from ATM kiosks in various cities.
Many of these gangs are active from remote villages, making it difficult for the police to trace their locations. They keep changing their phone numbers too.
Such cases are not unique to Gurgaon. Several cases of fraud on the basis of loan app have also been reported from Telangana.