The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police on August 20, 2022, busted an extortion racket based in China, Hong Kong. Data of Indian users were uploaded in the instant Loan application and extortion racket in the servers based in China and Hongkong. 22 people have been arrested by the police in the racket worth rupees 500 crores. The police have identified the involvement of Chinese nationals in the racket, six of whom are arrested in the case.
As per the reports, an extensive technical analysis was done by the IFSO which revealed the involvement of the Chinese applications in the loan and extortion racket. It was found that the Chinese apps were uploading the personal data of the user from the messages, chats, contacts, and images to the servers based in China, Hong Kong.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP – Cyber) KPS Malhotra stated:
The involvement of Chinese nationals has been identified. Money being routed to China through Cryptocurrencies.
The DCP added:
Two month-long operations, raids were conducted in Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, UP & Bihar to make arrests of 22 accused persons. Since the crackdown, a new trend of shifting call centers to Pakistan, Nepal & Bangladesh has been noticed.
From the interrogation of arrested accused persons, it’s been revealed that they are operating at the behest of Chinese nationals. Further investigation is in progress. 9 laptops, 25 hard disks, 51 mobile phones, and 19 debit cards were recovered.
