The racket was being run by some Chinese handlers in the garb of a local consulting BPO firm, Fly High Global Services and Technology. The modus operandi started with the simple advertisement for ‘On Stream’ online loan app in social media to attract customers who wished to avail hassle-free loans in minutes.
It was targeting mostly local youth who suffered most during the recent pandemic and are in dire need of money to meet urgent family expenses. Once downloaded, the app sought permissions to access the victims’ contacts which were utilised later by the company to blackmail its clients.
The Chinese racket charged exorbitant interests and the victims were threatened, abused and even blackmailed. They sent derogatory messages to the victim’s contacts on his or her behalf. The telecallers also used victim’s photographs from Aadhaar and PAN cards to blackmail in order to extort money from them.
Over the last four months, the gang had allegedly extorted around $12 million, of which 30 per cent was the commission of the Indian local firm. The local police, who raided the three-story building in Dwarka and arrested the kingpin, were surprised to find around 150 staff working in the firm along with around 300 SIM cards in the name of a different local company.
Chinese entities have penetrated into the Indian credit market and are exploiting Indian borrowers making use…
