Loan app fraud busted, Chinese woman among two arrested

New Delhi: Two people, including a Chinese woman, were arrested for allegedly extorting money from people using instant loan applications, police said on Wednesday.

The accused have been identified as Yu Zhang (52), a Chinese citizen, and Vineet Jhaver (38), a resident of Haryana, they said.

Three laptops, 13 mobile phones, seven credit and debit cards among others were recovered from their possession, police said.

According to police, they received several complaints that instant loan applications are disbursing loans at higher rates and even after payment of the dues, they were also extorting money by morphing pictures sourced from the user's mobile after gaining access to it.

During the analysis of the complaints, it was found that over 100 such applications are involved in the loan and extortion racket and all the apps were seeking access to personal data from the user, a senior police officer said.

After obtaining access to personal data like contacts, chats, messages, and images of the user, the same were being uploaded to the servers in India and abroad, police said.

The user, in need of an instant small loan, downloads the applications and grants permission to it after a small KYC (only uploading of Aadhar card, PAN card, and a live photograph). Following this, the loan is disbursed within minutes to the bank account of the user, they said.