According to the cyber crime department in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Chinese scammers have allegedly stolen an astounding $529 million from Indian citizens via rapid loan applications, part-time employment lures, and fake cryptocurrency trading schemes.
The coppers arrested a criminal organisation worth around $378 million as of last April, but the scams using cryptocurrencies were not included in that figure.
According to media sources, the con artists advertised their fraud using bulk TXT messages, which the authorities were able to trace to the Middle Kingdom. Some of the con artists’ operators were reportedly based in Nepal and were guided by Chinese threat actors. To entice investors, fake websites and cryptocurrency apps were created.
cording to Press Trust Of India, Uttar Pradesh Cyber Crime Superintendent of Police stated that the SMS aggregators are also involved in the rapid loan applications, part-time job offers, and now the crypto trading fraud that are all being run by the same Chinese hackers (PTI).
fore moving the cash to the Indian cryptocurrency exchange site Zebpay and a comparable global platform Binance, the scammers network moved victims money first to local Indian bank accounts and digital wallets.
The stolen money was finally withdrawn in China in April, according to police investigation and media sources.
was discovered last week that Gurugram, in the northern Indian state of Haryana, was the base of another Chinese-linked app borrowing scheme. Four Indian nationals are accused of extorting money under the false pretence of offering minor loans, according to a local publication. In order to further carry out their crimes, the suspects reportedly established call centres and targeted those with poor financial or computer literacy. The four are now being held.
According to India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the suspects used the Chinese instant messaging service “Husys” to communicate with their international counterparts. According to the investigators, the suspects were listed as shareholders and directors of Indian shell firms that were really controlled and run by their Chinese counterparts.
The instant loan apps, the part-time job offers, and now the crypto trading fraud, are all being operated by the same hackers from China, and SMS aggregators are also involved in it. “If people receive any offer for a part-time job, an instant loan, or huge returns on crypto currency trading, then there are high chances that these are fraud attempts from Chinese operators.
ere seems to be at least 60 of these lending applications that are accessible on Google Play Store have not been registered with or approved as NBFCs by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), making it unlawful for them to operate.
A closer look at many of these mobile applications shows us that most of these are fake or suspicious. Google Play Store has a privacy policy section for all its hosted applications and many of these fake apps have an incomplete or a redundant privacy policy with no address or grievance officer listed.