Hyderabad: A call center named ‘Cubevo Technology Private Limited’ (Skyline), headed by a Chinese National, was raided by the cybercrime division of Cyberabad police here on Friday. The police arrested 4 members, including the Chinese national.
The company’s head office named ‘Skyline Innovations Technologies India Private Limited’ is located in Delhi and is registered in ROC, Gurgaon. The company developed 11 Instant Loan applications that offer loans to individuals and collect huge repayments, including interest, processing charges, GST, default charges.
The company charged 1% penalty once the loan period is over, and resorted to systematic abusing, harassing, threatening of the defaulters through call centers run by them. They even blackmailed the borrowers by sending fake legal notices to their relatives and family members.
Recently, a Cyber Crime Police Station, Cyberabad, registered eight cases against these loan applications and launched an investigation. The police received a complaint from a person on December 17, 2020, in which he stated that for his financial needs he searched Google and downloaded the Instant Loan App and uploaded an Aadhar card, PAN card, self-authentication photo, 3 months bank statement, and taken a loan of Rs 2,015/- for 7 days and after deducting the amount of Rs 415/- for GST and processing fee, they disbursed Rs 1600/- as loan amount on August 25, 2020.
After that, he received calls from different mobile numbers and advised to take an instant loan from his applications. On their advice, he took a total loan amount of Rs 1,20,000/- from 28 instant loan applications. Even though he paid the loan amount of Rs 2,00,000/- with interest, he received calls from different mobile numbers and tele callers started making abusive and threatening calls and also blackmailed him of sending legal notices. Therefore, he requested to take necessary action and filed a complaint.
The accused persons are Zixia Zhang, a Chinese National (Absconding); Umapati @ Ajay R/o Delhi (Absconding); Yi Bai @ Dennis, a Chinese National, R/o Delhi, N/o Jiangxi, Shanghai, southwest China; SatyaPal Khyalia, R/o Delhi N/o Sikhar Dist, Rajasthan; Aniriddh Malhotra, R/o Hyderabad, N/o Rajasthan; and Murathoti Richie Hemanth Seth r/o Hyderabad N/o Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh.
Zixia Zhang, who is a Chinese national, is the mastermind behind the entire operation. He along with Umapati @ Ajay started a company named “DIGIPEERGO TECH PVT LTD” on December 2, 2019, and later incorporated “SKYLINE INNOVATION TECHNOLOGY INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED” with the help of Singapore based sister concern XIKAI HOLDING PTE LIMITED. He developed Instant Loan applications and hosted them in Google Play Store. He also established few more companies as call centers in various places in India and hired tele callers to collect the repayments from the customers.
Umapati @ Ajay is a resident of Delhi. He works for Zixia Zhang and is co-founder of SKYLINE INNOVATIONS TECHNOLOGY INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED”. He operates the bank accounts related to all the companies.
Yi Bai @ Dennis is a Chinese national and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of XIKAI HOLDING PTE. LIMITED. In the month of Feb 2020, he came to India on Business Visa and since then he is working as a Business Development Manager of Skyline Company. He along with Satyapal identifies the new locations and set up new call centers across India.
SatyaPal Khyalia is a native of the Sikar District of Rajasthan. He completed an MBA. Earlier he worked in a similar Instant Loan application company in Bangalore. In the month of Jan 2020, he was appointed as Head of Liaison and Risk Control at Digi Peergo Tech Pvt Ltd. He is also one of the Directors of TopFun Technologies Pvt Ltd. He helps Yi Bai to setup new call centers.
Aniruddh Malhotra is a native of Rajasthan. He studied B.Com. In the month of July 2020, he joined Skyline Company as Operations Manager. He was promoted and sent to Hyderabad to manage the new branch of the Call center named BEST SHINE TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD established on November 30, 2020.
Murathoti Richie is a native of the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. He also worked in a similar Instant Loan Application company in Bangalore and was a colleague of SatyaPal Khyalia. In the month of Aug 2020, he joined Skyline Company as Operations Manager. He was trained and sent to Hyderabad to manage new Branch of Call Center named CUBEVO TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD which was established on September 7, 2020.
The Instant Loan Applications include 1-Loan Gram; 2- Cash Train; 3- Cash Bus; 4-AAA Cash; 5- Super Cash; 6- Mint Cash; 7- Happy Cash; 8-Loan Card; 9-Repay One; 10- Money Box; and 11- Monkey box etc.
The fraudsters adopted the following Modus Operandi:
Zixia Zhang with the help of his Singapore-based company developed 11 Instant loan applications offering loans to individuals aged between 20-40 years with high-interest rates. In the month of Dec 2019, Zixia Zhang along with Umapati established a company called DIGIPEERGO TECH PVT LTD initially and then established SKY LINE INNOVATION TECHNOLOGY INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED and offered loans through the above-mentioned applications.
To get the repayments from the loan borrowers, they have set up four more call centers in various parts of the country. Following is the list of Call Centers operating in various cities.
1. Topfun Technologies Pvt Ltd, registered at Goa and Office located at Gurgaon.
2. Fasmate Technology Services Pvt Ltd, Office located at Gurgaon.
3. Cubevo Technology Private Limited, Office located at Hyderabad.
4. Best Shine Technology Private limited, Office located at Hyderabad.
These applications are developed in such a way that on installing these apps they get access to the contacts, mobile information, and other data on the device. These applications collect the Id proofs, PAN card, KYC documents, Bank account details of the customers. They check the genuineness of the documents and disburse small amounts in the form of loans to their bank accounts by debiting the processing charges and GST i.e., 25-30% in advance. There will be two categories of loan period 1) 7 days and 2) 15 days.
On completion of the due date, the customer is put into a bucket list (S-0, S-1, S-2, S-3, M2, M3, X etc.,). The lesser the bucket the loanee is in, the lesser the abusive treatment is, and abuse and harassment increases with the bigger bucket. They abuse the customers in filthy language and threaten them with dire consequences.
They even go to the extent of accessing the contacts of the customers from their phone and start abusing and threatening the family members, relatives, and friends with calls and messages.
Further, the fraudsters have set up call centers in different parts of south India, where the tele callers make calls to the customers who are categorized into different categories and ask for huge repayments in an abusive and threatening manner. They also blackmail innocents by sending fake legal notices.
The tele callers also suggest victims to make the repayments by taking a loan from their other loan applications. The customer falls into their trap by taking loans in the other loan applications as suggested by tele callers and end up paying huge amounts and stuck in a never-ending cycle.
So far in the investigation of whether these applications are connected to any NBFC or not is clear. The applications developed by these companies are involved in various cases registered across the state.
The police has seized Laptops – 2, Cell Phones – 4, and one Bank A/c with an amount of Rs 2 crores. The police have issued an advisory in the general public interest:
1. Don’t download any Insta Loan Apps from Play Store or other sources which are not having proper licences from government authorities.
2. Don’t give your personnel and bank credentials to anyone.
3. Please go through the terms and conditions and verify the licences of the companies offering loans, whether they obtained from the concerned authorities like RBI, Dist Collector.
4. Don’t download any App that asks to give access to the contacts, files, Gallery.
