Bhubaneswar: On the request of Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar, Bureau of Immigration (BOI) has issued Look out Circular against LIU YI, a Chinese national. He is the main accused in a case of running illegal digital loan Apps in India.
EOW has booked Liu Yi under Sections 294/506/507/420/467/468/120 of the IPC and Section 66 D of IT Act. The case was registered on April 21, 2022. He used to run many illegal digital Loan Apps in India like:
KOKO Loan
JOJO Loan
Golden Lightening Loan
Silver Kredit Loan
Gold Cash loan
Little Borrow Loan
Tap Credit Loan
Kredit bear Loan
Speedy rupee Loan
Xpress credit Loan
Kredit Plan loan
Rupee Day Loan and few others.
It is worth to mention that in one APP alone there are more than 1.5 Lakh downloads. It is suspected that they have cheated/ extorted lakhs of people across the country particularly targeting lower middle class people in the need of small loan especially during difficult time of COVID.
He started his illegal business in India in 2019 from Bangalore. His parent company was Jianbing Technoloy in Hangzhou China. He is the director of Omlette technology private limited but indirectly controls/ owns following other companies:
Yellow Tune Technologies private limited
Mudmate Technologies Private limited
Pinkleaf Aryan communications private limited
Techlite development private limited
URELA Technologies Private limited.
Latterfun Technologies Private limited.
IWT India
Ocean trading.
There are at least two more Chinese who used to assist him in his scam. They used to make his employees or any vulnerable/ needy people directors of the shell companies but actually used to control/ operate the companies and bank accounts. They also used many Call centers to make abusive/ threatening calls to loanees. It is suspected that they are running such illegal Loan APPs in other countries too especially in Thailand.
In this case EOW has already arrested 5 accused accomplice of Chinese mastermind. EOW is in touch of various state police and has conducted raids in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. More than Rs 6.57 Crore has been frozen.
These fake loan apps once downloaded in one’s mobile play store, small amounts ranging from Rs.3,000/- to Rs.10,000/- is credited in the customer’s bank account. Once the amount is credited to the customer’s bank account, within a week the customer/borrower is asked to repay the amount with excessive rate of interest.
On denial to pay the high rate of interest, the concerned customer is humiliated/ bullied in many ways. Obscene messages and indecent pictures alongwith abusive texts in filthy languages are sent to his/her whatsapp number and as well as to his/her contact list as a coercive measure to recover the loan amount with interest. This process of recovery is so overbearing and humiliating that there are some instances of the customers committing suicide.
There has been already more than 1.5 lakh downloads of KOKO and JOJO loan. EOW has received more than 100 complaints from Odisha related to illegal/ abusive activities of illegal Loan APP. Look Out circular is generally issued to alert immigration check posts at airports/seaports etc. to alert law enforcement agency if the wanted person tries to leave the country or arrive inside country from abroad.
Advisory on Illegal Loan Apps
In order to contain these types of crime and to create general awareness among the public, it is hereby advised/ requested to the public that not to take any loans from unregistered/ illegal loan apps available on Internet and Play Store as the loan apps on pretext of advancing loan, access/ hack all information from the customers phone, which may later be used by the company to perpetrate some other financial crime.
Such loan apps also harass the customer by charging not only a high rate of interest but on failure to repay the same, harass them by sending obscene and indecent representation of the customers photos to their contact list. Hence, on failure of repayment of loan , the consequences has to be borne not only by the customer but also by their family members and friends/contacts. Many times money is also credited just after downloading the APP without actually asking/ requesting money.
In some states, many people have committed suicide being blackmailed / continuously humiliated by the recovery agents of these illegal loan APPs. Not only the borrowers but their family members are also harassed. All are advised that one should avoid downloading/ using these illegal loan APPs.
Even if someone has already downloaded/ taken loan, they should not surrender/ tolerate the abusive/ harassing behavior/ torture but instead report the matter to police. And in no case they should take the extreme steps like committing suicide.
Advisory:
1. Please do not give your documents for opening of bank accounts to be operated by someone else and also don’t allow anybody to use your SIM to be used by someone else. These things can be used for illegal purposes.
2. Please don’t surrender to abusive/ torturous method of recovery agents of these Loan App companies. Report the matter to local Police.
