Mumbai cyber police nab 14 persons part of online instant loan racket

Mumbai: 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, an official said on Friday.

The cyber police have frozen 350 bank accounts, comprising Rs 14 crore, and cryptocurrency worth $2.17 lakh, Joint Commissioner (crime) Suhas Warke said.

The fraud and harassment came to light when a complaint was lodged in May this year and following a probe, the arrests were made in the last couple of weeks, the official said.

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, he said.

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, the official said.

The accused were nabbed from Bengaluru (Karnataka), Andhra Pradesh, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Uttarakhand, he said, adding that further probe is underway.