International loan app scam unravels with arrest of four in Chandigarh

Cracking down on a loan application scam, in which criminals would extort victims by sending manipulated nude photos to their contacts, cyber sleuths dismantled a Dubai-based syndicate with the arrest of four gang members, police said on Wednesday.
The arrested accused, Adesh Kumar, Tanveer Khan and Wazid of Ghaziabad, and Mahfooz Alam of Mayur Vihar landed in the police net, approximately five months after a city-based victim, who had lost ₹43.8 lakh to scammers, reported the matter.
The cops scrutinised bank records, used technical surveillance, and relied on tip offs to crack the case. Based on certain inputs, they carried out raids in Rajender Nagar, Ghaziabad, from where the accused were arrested. Notably, Tanveer Khan and Wazid were previously arrested by the Madhya Pradesh police for cyber fraud and were on bail at the time of this incident.
The case
In her complaint, the Chandigarh-based victim, a constable, said that she fell prey to the scammers in March 2023, when intrigued by a mobile notification from “Real Money” application, she unwittingly installed the app on her phone. Subsequently, the app requested her bank account details, which led to an unauthorised transfer of ₹1,800. Though she tried to refund the sum, the application did not allow her to do so. This triggered a series of harassing messages and calls demanding repayment through various loan applications – See Money, Hello Cash, One Cash, S Cash, Sea Money, D Money, Okay Lends, T Loan, Swift Loan, U Cash, Fast Cash.
The scammers, who had access to her contact list and mobile gallery, started threatening to send morphed obscene photographs to her contacts. They managed to coerce her into transferring approximately ₹43.8 lakh to multiple bank accounts associated with the scam through UPI payments. She also received some amount from these loan applications in her bank accounts.
Modus operandi
Police said that Wazid, who controlled the bank accounts, was the mastermind of the operation. He had established many shell companies using the identities of his associates, Adesh Kumar and Tanveer Khan.
He had also opened current bank accounts in different banks in the name of these firms by using his gang members’ documents. He sent these account details and SIM cards to Mahfooz Alam, who was in turn, in contact with other fraudsters through an encrypted messaging service.
When his accomplices confirmed the bank account and SIM card details, he provided them a different address in the Delhi NCR and asked them to send the bank account kit along with the registered SIM card through courier.
Alam received a percentage on each transaction exceeding ₹1 crore, passing on a share to Wazid for providing the necessary accounts. The syndicate utilised 10 accounts for their activities, resulting in multi-crore transactions through the fraudulent loan application scam.
In October 2023, a case was registered against unidentified accused under Sections 384 (extortion), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 509 (word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).