Karnataka CID busts fraud using mobile-based loan apps
Bengaluru, Dec 24: A major online financial fraud involving theft of personal data of applicants by a few micro finance companies said to be front-end firms of investors in some neighbouring countries has been busted here, police said on Thursday.
Acting on complaints from some victims, including a woman who took loan using Paisa Loan app, the Criminal Investigation Department raided four companies, arrested the chief finance officer and human resource manager of one of them and seized laptops, mobile handsets and documents.
"On preliminary investigation we have found the owners of these apps are some front-end companies, citizens of neighbouring countries are the investors/directors and CEOs for every such company," the CID said in a press release, without naming the countries.
The mobile apps are directly installed, accessed, used and monitored from cloud systems based in those countries. All the data is also hacked and used against the victims.
The investigations revealed that these financing companies had used fake SIM cards to call the customers, it said.
Explaining the modus operandi, the CID said they found each company possessed several microloan apps of their own and on installation, users were made to part with details of PAN, Aadhaar, bank account number among others and grant permission for accessing SMSes, call logs, camera and storage on the phone.
The loan generally ranges between Rs 3,000 and Rs 9,000 and customers were charged an interest rate of 36 per cent per annum, which is deducted along with processing fee at the time of payment of the amount.
If the customers fail to repay, the financiers harass them by sending abusive and threatening SMS and call the reference mobile numbers collected during activation of the application.
Using data accessed by the apps, a WhatsApp group comprising the contacts of the customer is created and messages against them are circulated with their photograph and with all kinds of "abuse, sexual overtones," with a tag of CHOR, FRAUD, 420, DEFAULTER etc.," the CID said.
There were instances where a voice message was sent threatening physical and sexual assault on the women victims by the company recovery agents.
The CID appealed to the people not to share the data over any kind of applications which may go against them.
Beware of Fake App Based Loan Providers! #fakeloan #Cybercrime @Cyberdost pic.twitter.com/Y1OBH6AmOq
— Cybercrime CID (@CybercrimeCID) November 24, 2020
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Death sentence of Nimisha Priya likely to be revoked; Mediation talks in Yemen make progress
Kozhikode: There are strong indications that Nimisha Priya’s death sentence in Yemen may be revoked following significant progress in recent mediation talks. According to mediators, the family of the deceased Yemeni national Talal, who was killed, has agreed in principle to pardon Nimisha.
A press release from the office of Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar stated that some crucial decisions have been taken in the case. The developments follow high-level negotiations involving a delegation of Yemeni scholars appointed by Habib Umar bin Hafiz, a prominent scholar from Tarim, along with officials from northern Yemen and international diplomatic representatives.
Further discussions with Talal’s family are expected to finalise the terms, especially concerning compensation and legal formalities.
It may be recalled that Nimisha was scheduled to be executed on July 16. However, following the intervention of Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar, the execution was temporarily postponed on July 15.
