'Don't touch the system, will shoot you': Gujarati scamsters ran loan app racket in TVM as call centre, targeted US clients

The loan app racket, which was busted by Thiruvananthapuram city police on Monday, functioned in the guise of running a call centre and targeted people in the USA. The police have so far recorded the arrest of 20 people. City Police Commissioner Arul R B Krishna told Onmanorama that the probe centres around three main accused, who hail from Gujarat. 

Two of them are in custody while a search is on for the third person. The police haven't officially released the identities of the accused. One person was held from Thiruvananthapuram airport, and another accused was arrested at Ahmedabad airport while trying to escape. Senior police officials said that the cyber operations of the team were under surveillance for the past few weeks.

The police have seized laptops, mobile phones and other documents from the office. It functioned as a call centre employing around 50 staff in a plush office complex. While the kingpins hail from Gujarat, other staff were recruited from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. One of the accused spoke to clients in an American accent, earned their trust and offered loans. The client information would be passed on to other staff. A link would be sent, and information would be collected. When the victims failed to repay, they would threaten them. Mostly, the funds were collected as processing fees.

The Commissioner said the devices will be subjected to forensic analysis to gauge the actual extent of the fraud. The cops who raided the office also chanced upon one computer on which a sticker was pasted. It showed, "Don't touch, will shoot you". The officials suspect that this computer was used by the key accused and contains critical information about the modus operandi. This computer has also been seized by the police for analysis. A police team is in pursuit of one of the accused, who is on the run. Many of the staff, who were held, were into housekeeping and other office jobs.

According to police, three Gujarati men hatched the plot, devised the recruitment plan and chose Kerala to run operations. "At present, no Keralite has been found to be involved in the fraud. The victims are mostly US citizens. We understand that they used the information of a US-based loan app to attract clients," a police official said.