Noida, Feb 17 (PTI) With the arrest of three men, the Noida Police on Friday claimed to have busted a gang allegedly involved in extorting money from hundreds of people after trapping them on the pretext of providing instant loan through digital lending apps.
The gang was behind the operation of several lending apps, including Chinese ones, that shelled out petty amounts like Rs 5,000 or Rs 10,000 and later harassed the borrower into repaying a much higher amount by threatening to make public his/her obscene videos and pictures, police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Harish Chander said the gang has been working for the last two years and had been operating from Sector 16.
Besides, the gang also duped several job aspirants on the pretext of getting them employment in airlines, the officer said.
“The police had been receiving complaints about frauds by some miscreants using digital lending apps. These apps provided instant loans of small amount like Rs 5,000 or Rs 10,000. When ACP 2 (Sushil Kumar) investigated the matter, three people’s role came to light and they have been taken into custody,” Chander told reporters.
The Phase 1 police station team also seized three laptops and eight mobile phones from their possession during the arrest.
The information found in these devices has helped reveal the gang’s working, the officer said.
“They collected data from banks focusing on loan defaulters especially those with small amounts like Rs 2,000 or Rs 5,000. The gang then reached out to these defaulters over WhatsApp and also shared links to porn video clips (morphed) for extortion, threatening to share them on social media or with a user’s phone contacts,” DCP Chander said.
Their other modus operandi was that duped employment aspirants on pretext of helping them with ground jobs in the aviation sector.
They would promise them job and take whatever money – Rs 20,000 or Rs 25,000 – through online transfer and then block their numbers to prevent further interaction, he said.
“Three people have been arrested while one more of their partner is absconding, for whom searches have been launched. Database of hundreds of people have been found from their possession and it will be analysed to ascertain the extent of fraud committed by the gang,” Chander said.
While the police estimated the fraud to be in “crores of rupees”, the officer noted that since the amount involved in cheating was small, there was a chance that many victims may not have even approached police to report it.
Those held have been identified as Rajeev Pal, Manish Kumar and Suraj Shrivastava, police said, adding further legal action and investigation in the case are underway.
The police meanwhile urged citizens to report any cyber offense immediately at the national helpline number 1930 or at 112. Noida and Greater Noida residents can also use the local police’s dedicated helpline number 0121 – 4846100 to report any cyber offense. PTI KIS RHL
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