Loan scam in India allegedly headed by a Chinese Narional

[amishmanish]

A loan scam amounting to INR 21,000 Crores (USD 280 Mn) has been doing the round in Indian media.

The report here alleges that some transactions also used digital wallets:

Link1
Link 2

What they found was a record of several transactions amounting to a total of 21000 Crores in form of lending and borrowing with high rates of interest. This was being run by a Chinese national using android apps ans a network of call centers in India.

I wonder if any of you have come in direct contact or know someone who has interacted with these people. It seems like a network of P2P lending which turned sour due to the sheer scale and harassment of borrowers which even led to a tech worker's suicide.

[Fesatmas]

Thank you for the information. indeed this is very vulnerable and needs to be avoided, considering that India has a very neat way of committing this type of fraud. although not all, and although encouraged by one person who is a Chinese citizen, it certainly adds to the image of trust in India getting worse. Just imagine, just by using the Android application, this can happen, especially if you use hardware that has a larger capacity weight.

[romero121]

The war pressure is rising between India and China on the border issue. The loan scam is being related with the Chinese application developers. More people have ended their lives out of the pressure given from the loan providing application. This loan scam is termed to be a way to track and gather data about the users. This way it is planned to create internal violence within the country. I don't know how this gonna be true.

[plr]

We have something like that in our country and they are many of these here they have an application where they offer 10 to 20?% interest what's worse is the hidden charges, and if you failed to pay on time, they are going to harass you on social media, glad that our SEC have issued warnings against these loan application loan scam are also operated here by Chinese they made it a country to country operation.

[ecnalubma]

Third world countries are very vulnerable to these type of scams. People with low knowledge about these schemes get easily tricked by bad actors, they don’t even verify the legitimacy of a particular company and blinded by high returns of their investments. Even if the SEC imposed strict regulations and warnings many people are still ignorant to this matter.

[Mauser]

I wonder if any of you have come in direct contact or know someone who has interacted with these people. It seems like a network of P2P lending which turned sour due to the sheer scale and harassment of borrowers which even led to a tech worker's suicide.

I didn't come into direct contact with this scam. But why are always the big scam schemes based out of India? The reputation of the country is so bad that now already attracts foreigners to setup their scams in India? Honestly, I wish the Indian government would go harder against the scams. There should be much harder punishments for scammer with 10 year prison sentences and more.

[Lorence.xD]

Thank you for the information. indeed this is very vulnerable and needs to be avoided, considering that India has a very neat way of committing this type of fraud. although not all, and although encouraged by one person who is a Chinese citizen, it certainly adds to the image of trust in India getting worse. Just imagine, just by using the Android application, this can happen, especially if you use hardware that has a larger capacity weight.

Indian scam call centers are definitely branching out their scam expertise. This is the first time that I have heard of such scam, most Scam Call Center in India is doing Tech Support Scams, IRS Scams, Refund Scams and Vacation Scams, although there are some that meddles with cryptocurrency, I never bat an eye because most scammers tend to go for the cold hard cash. This scams are really tainting the reputation of the hardworking and honest Indians, even their people are mad at these type of people. This one scam though is something that is pretty impressive because they even have an app to make it look legitimate.

[amishmanish]

I wonder if any of you have come in direct contact or know someone who has interacted with these people. It seems like a network of P2P lending which turned sour due to the sheer scale and harassment of borrowers which even led to a tech worker's suicide.

I didn't come into direct contact with this scam. But why are always the big scam schemes based out of India? The reputation of the country is so bad that now already attracts foreigners to setup their scams in India? Honestly, I wish the Indian government would go harder against the scams. There should be much harder punishments for scammer with 10 year prison sentences and more.

India has one of the cheapest and most widespread internet and telecommunication infrastructure compared to any other part of the world. Couple this with a huge base of English speaking young population looking for jobs but staying unemployed. A lot of Indian citizens regularly suffer as they have money siphoned out of their bank accounts as young people masquerading as bank employees will call and compel you to divulge important information.
The worst to suffer are the elderly in India as well a west. The videos by Jim Browning are heartbreaking at times.

The law and order is very lax and outdated in catching and prosecuting these criminals. These are just the limitations on technical capabilities. Police in major metropolis have smartened up and have been busting a lot of these scams. The scammers just shift to jurisdictions in the hinterland where a police station incharge would have a hard time operating his own smart-phone, let alone catch the relatively high-tech scammers.

We have something like that in our country and they are many of these here they have an application where they offer 10 to 20?% interest what's worse is the hidden charges, and if you failed to pay on time, they are going to harass you on social media, glad that our SEC have issued warnings against these loan application loan scam are also operated here by Chinese they made it a country to country operation.

When you say SEC, Does that mean its USA you are talking about. It'll be great if you can share some links to such cases and what was done to manage them.

The war pressure is rising between India and China on the border issue. The loan scam is being related with the Chinese application developers. More people have ended their lives out of the pressure given from the loan providing application. This loan scam is termed to be a way to track and gather data about the users. This way it is planned to create internal violence within the country. I don't know how this gonna be true.

The chinese are intelligent scammers adept at all forms of cyber espionage, cyber bullying and setting the narrative. Just look at what Justin Sun has pulled off with TRON through sheer marketing and social media warfare. Yet, Indian media and establishment is yet only capable of linking everything to chauvinism and nationalism. Even if the Chinese were gathering data about Indian users and somehow undermining the establishment, nobody at the top cares about the intricacies. They would rather engage in street warfare and inciting communal divisions to benefit and solidify their vote base.

[sunsilk]

I've thought of an article that just popped out on my feed that's related to a scam caught on airport and when I've compared that news, this seems to be exact as it is. Chinese nationals were caught before flights and an Indian colleague was also caught.

Loan apps scam: Chinese held at IGI before flight

[so98nn]

This is "easy scam" in the India. People are very broke and desperate for getting quick loans which makes them susceptible to enrol into such fraud processes.
Literally I am also getting big amount of messages every day who ask for KYC details and OTP's without any hesitance. The unbelievable thing is, how they get our mobile numbers and how do they dare to publish their scam apps and offers to us.

There are some apps like Dhani App, who lend money but are based on trusted company however, more similar apps started to get published after pandemic outset thus making it confusing for other people. Many of them got screwed due to this.

[amishmanish]

I've thought of an article that just popped out on my feed that's related to a scam caught on airport and when I've compared that news, this seems to be exact as it is. Chinese nationals were caught before flights and an Indian colleague was also caught.

Loan apps scam: Chinese held at IGI before flight

Thanks for the link. That article too talks about bitcoin being used for high value transactions.

The questioning of Nagaraju revealed that Lambo reports to another Chinese national, Yuan Yuan, alias Sissi, alias Jennifer, who set up the operations in India. She is believed to be in China. Investigations have also revealed that companies like Aglow Technologies Pvt Ltd, Liufang Technologies Pvt Ltd, Nabloom Technologies Pvt Ltd and Pinprint Technologies Pvt Ltd were used to make transactions in crores, many of them in bitcoins.

The media seems busy with other issues so for now this is just another "banking scam". Nobody seems worried and its not a major political issue. RBI has issued a warning stating consumers to beware of loan apps. They have some kind of loan aggregator app. Like an Uber for loans. These connect to the Chinese run apps which start demanding repayment in 7 days. The recent surge in BTC prices may have been a factor for the lenders to pressurize the people. This articles shares some details about how people took loans during the pandemic to meet immediate expenses and were then harassed on social media in front of friends and relatives leading to 3 suicides.

I hope the Indian tele-callers who were part of the call center workforce harassing these people are dealt strictly by law.

[verita1]

I am sorry for what is happening in a nation like India and in the midst of the pandemic crisis. I think that government entities should be vigilant of these fraudulent apps so as not to allow them to operate under any circumstances. I think the security measures and controls have failed because if it had been different, these apps would not reach the citizens.

[amishmanish]

Thanks for informing us, Let me add something additionally concerning this news, This Chinese man is presently captured and his named was Zhu Wei and its 55 years old and has a place with Jiangxi region. It was Hyderabad police who capture him while he was leaving the country. I am wondering that the Indian government will in general boycott PUBG and TikTokbut still somehow allowed the transaction of 21,000 CR.

Yeah he was taken into custody in pretty dramatic fashion right at the airport. Say whatever we may about the communal tendencies of our present government, they don't go easy when it is time to flex muscles. Everybody remembers how certain rich businessmen were allowed to "slip through" in earlier times.

You are right about how huge that figure is. At a time when people were struggling to have ends meet, this whole nexus was operating to entice these desperate people, charge them exorbitant interest rates and nobody even got a whiff till 3 people committed suicide. A search for loan apps on Google store throws up hundreds of results. For those who haven't used such an app, you wouldn't even know they exist. Lets just hope that the news doesn't get buried and the whole nexus is caught. Pretty sure that many people are falling prey to these apps.

[stompix]

Everyone is blaming the "Chinese" running the business but nobody said a word about one other thing:

Officials say the call centres employed hundreds of youngsters trained to lure customers, entrap them into borrowing successive sums from multiple apps, and were trained to "abuse, defame and blackmail" victims in order to recover borrowed money and the interest. In three call centres alone over 1,000 people were employed, many of whom were college graduates paid between ₹ 10,000 and ₹ 15,000 per month.

The ones doing the blackmail and the verbal abuse that might have led to the suicides were Indian nationals, they were doing the entrapment they were doing blackmail, if I'm telling somebody how he can scam somebody and he goes on scamming him and threatening him who is morally to blame more?
Yeah, let's blame China and forget that the ones pulling the trigger were your own citizens.

[mersal]

Easy loans always have hidden agenda butbthe financial status of the people get them trapped in such traps and en up paying huge or even giving up their life. Heard that those loan apps taken sensitive data like private photos, contacts and call history of someone who took loan which was later used to blackmail the defaulters. I think this should be taken care if government since it looks like exceeding the limits given by government.

[fiulpro]

When it comes to China vs india do these people just realize that they are making wrong mistakes not just it would cost them years in jail but also have fights ivey them in nations.
Scams are really common thank you for sharing your news. I do think that the most simple minded people do get caught up in things like these but now they have the guy I do hope something can be done to return the money of those poor people.

Easy loans always have hidden agenda butbthe financial status of the people get them trapped in such traps and en up paying huge or even giving up their life. Heard that those loan apps taken sensitive data like private photos, contacts and call history of someone who took loan which was later used to blackmail the defaulters. I think this should be taken care if government since it looks like exceeding the limits given by government.

There is no such thing like easy loans!!!
You need to trust banks more in this case.

The ones doing the blackmail and the verbal abuse that might have led to the suicides were Indian nationals, they were doing the entrapment they were doing blackmail, if I'm telling somebody how he can scam somebody and he goes on scamming him and threatening him who is morally to blame more?
Yeah, let's blame China and forget that the ones pulling the trigger were your own citizens.

Well... this is the sad truth. In India, none of the banks would be willing to give you a loan, without a sizable collateral. The Chinese appeared all of a sudden, and they started offering loans without any collateral (but with higher than average interest rate). Now the interest rate was quite high, and those who took the loans knew it beforehand. Now who should be blamed if they are defaulting on their repayment?

Banks ?? Collateral?? Even without all this you would have to wait lonnnngggg.... I have to wait almost a year to get my student loan through in the end taking normal loan from other people are the only options. Banks don't help man !!

[Twentyonepaylots]

When a stand-up comedian in the past said that Chinese love their money, I did not think it is by this much. These people would really organize a large scale scamming organization like this amidst the heavy hitting of the pandemic outside of their own country where people will easily persecute and generalize them. It's like these people are made to withstand criticisms from other people long as they profit from it. Quite sickening if you ask me.

Easy loans always have hidden agenda butbthe financial status of the people get them trapped in such traps and en up paying huge or even giving up their life. Heard that those loan apps taken sensitive data like private photos, contacts and call history of someone who took loan which was later used to blackmail the defaulters. I think this should be taken care if government since it looks like exceeding the limits given by government.

That's why Loan Sharks are a booming business in third-world countries. These people know how important money is to a poor joe and would do what it takes to make sure the person they are interested in would take a loan from them.

[amishmanish]

Everyone is blaming the "Chinese" running the business but nobody said a word about one other thing:

Officials say the call centres employed hundreds of youngsters trained to lure customers, entrap them into borrowing successive sums from multiple apps, and were trained to "abuse, defame and blackmail" victims in order to recover borrowed money and the interest. In three call centres alone over 1,000 people were employed, many of whom were college graduates paid between ₹ 10,000 and ₹ 15,000 per month.

The ones doing the blackmail and the verbal abuse that might have led to the suicides were Indian nationals, they were doing the entrapment they were doing blackmail, if I'm telling somebody how he can scam somebody and he goes on scamming him and threatening him who is morally to blame more?
Yeah, let's blame China and forget that the ones pulling the trigger were your own citizens.

You are right. The present situation in our country is such that there is free media only to put up a face to the world. You can ask questions but not to those in power. Why? Well because they are in power and must have the best of everyone in their minds when doing something. If you question them, that just means you are an Elitist/ Intellectual==>Leftist/ Commie==>Anti-national, in that order.

Though I wouldn't under-play the Chinese factor so easily. Nor should any of the other countries that have seen Facebook/ Twitter propaganda distort the narrative. Twitter is a strange beast. There is the Kashmir story where Pakistani handles do their best to exploit. During the recent standoff, both sides were busy trying to portray it their own way. While these were on a strategic scale, such scams being run by individuals aren't much of a surprise considering how fast the Chinese adapt and grab an opportunity.

And yeah, there are those of us who still question the media narrative and want these people to be brought to law.

The media seems busy with other issues so for now this is just another "banking scam". Nobody seems worried and its not a major political issue.
--snip--
I hope the Indian tele-callers who were part of the call center workforce harassing these people are dealt strictly by law.

The Indian tele-callers were the biggest cause behind the suicides because they would know the best ways to harass a fellow citizen. The Chinese were their just to manage the shows and "invest". The story has pretty much already lost steam in mainstream media.

[el kaka22]

I have always said that you can't trust Chinese people, not because of any racist thing, because of political. Chinese people who managed to get away from china and lives somewhere else, and lives a decent life is still 100% fine and they are great people.. probably? I mean humanity is not great in any race frankly but they are at least as bad as any other race let's say.

But anyone who is Chinese and stays Chinese and doesn't run away from the communist party, means that they are tied to it, and that communist party of china is willing to let the whole world destroyed if it means they will be the last ones to die, I am not even joking, offer China an option like "the whole world will die nation by nation, each nation will die for one month, and the last nation to die will be yours", they will take that deal, they are that devil and evil.

[Haunebu]

Heard about this recently. Sad to see these things happening even after so many crypto related scams have been revealed in the last couple of years.

The scammers smartly constructed Ponzi style schemes and gullible people fell for it. They probably didn't care about checking reviews or anything and got greedy due to which they got screwed.

Always do your research people before investing in any sort of business(Crypto or non-Crypto).