Loan app scam: Nepal cops score a treasure trove of info in Mumbai cases

The call centre that was raided in Kathmandu on Monday

The Nepal police raiding illegal app call centres have found that the centres in Kathmandu and Rupandehi were headed by Chinese nationals but registered in the name of a Nepali national. The investigation has also revealed that the call centres only targeted lower class Indian citizens in need of small loans. Some of the apps are being investigated by the Mumbai and Maharashtra police's cyber cells.

mid-day had done a series of articles on the frauds committed by those behind the mobile loan applications in Mumbai and Maharashtra. Following these reports, former Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil ordered the state police's cyber cell to treat the issues as one common case and investigate all the complaints registered across the state against the mobile loan applications. The Mumbai and state Cyber Cell registered more than 25 cases and one umbrella case respectively.

The police have also found that the call centre in Kathmandu had a kitchen where they used to cook daily for more than 1,100 people

During investigations, the police found the involvement of Chinese nationals as most of the servers through which the apps were uploaded on the play store were found in China. Both the agencies have compiled a list of 500 apps that were being investigated. The list also had the names of Easy Loan, Go Loan and G- Pay Loan Apps (Not related to Google pay) that were being operated from an illegal call center in Kathmandu named Sky World Service Office, which has been busted by the Nepal police in recent raids.

The Nepal police have also found that the servers of most of the loan apps operated from Nepal were in Macau, Hongkong and mainland China. The Maharashtra cyber cell has also found that Handy loan app which gave a fake Gujarat address has servers in China. The officials have said that a Chinese email was provided to upload the Handy loan app on play store.

Two Indians held

Some raids were conducted on Sunday and a Chinese national identified as Hu Yuihua, 43, and two Indian nationals Manoj Shaini, 26, Neha Gupta, 19, were arrested with 33 Nepali nationals including 5 women. "The raids were conducted after we received information that some illegal activities were taking place in the name of call centres," said Dnieshraj Mainali, superintendent and spokesperson of Kathmandu police. The Nepali national in whose name the call centres are registered, Vijay Shrestha, is absconding.

Tek Prasad Rai, spokesperson, Nepal police

The officials have found that more than 2,000 people employed at the Kathmandu call center which was raided on Monday were fluent in Hindi. The police have also found that there was a kitchen where they used to cook daily for more than 1,100 people inside the call centre. "Their basic job was to target common people of lower class in India who are in need of short term money loans. The fraudulent business started with advertisements on various platforms, mainly social media that if you need a short term loan download app and get money easily, the apps such as Easy Loan and Go Loan and many more were being handled by them. They use to torture people until the loan is paid back." said Nepal police spokesperson Tek Prasad Rai.

"They gave advertisements of loans up to Rs 50,000 but most of the people got loans of around Rs 20,000. They were given seven days to pay the debt. On the sixth day they would call the borrower and remind him that tomorrow was the time to repay the loan," he added.

‘Debtors' phones hacked'

The Nepal police officers have also said that they are aware of multiple cases of suicide reported in Mumbai and India due to the harassment by these agents, because they used to hack people's cell phone after sending links and get access to their crucial details including personal photos, which were morphed and shared with their relatives. "Their aim was to make money as soon as possible and they have been using apps like WhatsApp and IMO to send messages and calls," an official of the Kathmandu police said. During the course of investigation, the police have also found the employees working at the call centers were paid from Rs 15,000 to Rs 80,000 (Nepali rupees) based on their position and they would also get commission if they were able to recover money from the debtors. The official also said such call centers have been functional in Nepal for the past two years Earlier, officials have found that criminals operated from Sri Lanka but now it has been established that Chinese citizens were conducting such criminal activities from Nepal in collaboration with Indians.

The police have also recovered various equipment including 362 laptops, 748 desktops and DVRs from the Kathmandu raids. They will send these materials to the forensic department of Nepal police for testing and investigation. A total of Rs 8,29,000 (Nepali rupees) cash was also found during the raids. The police has said that as per their probe, the same group was behind the call centre raided in Rupandehi - Blue Sky Business Service Center - where more than 150 people were arrested on Saturday.

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No of people arrested in raids on Sunday