The cyber police in Mumbai have arrested 14 people who were part of a racket involved in harassing people through mobile phone applications offering instant loans.
The cyber police have frozen 350 bank accounts, comprising Rs 14 crore, and crypto currency worth $2.17 lakh. The police also confiscated 211 SIM cards, 39 mobile phones, and 19 laptops. The accused were nabbed from Bengaluru (Karnataka), Andhra Pradesh, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Uttarakhand, and further probe is underway.
While applying for instant loans on mobile phone applications, all the personal data of the applicants would go to the company of the accused persons, which they then used for harassing people who failed to repay loans. The accused allegedly morphed obscene images of the victims who failed to repay loans or defaulted on the payment of interest and circulated the same to their friends and family members.
Earlier in 2022, an RBI Working Group on digital lending found that more than half of about 1,100 digital loan providers were operating illegally and were available in app stores. Last week, the Delhi police arrested four men for allegedly extorting money from people through short-term loan applications in association with Chinese firms.
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