The Hyderabad City Police's Cyber Crime division arrested two Bengaluru residents for allegedly operating six predatory instant loan apps under the supervision of a Chinese national named Chen Chaoping. According to a press release, the accused Shabbir Alam and Umakanth Yadav were employees of Koramangala-based Sky Links Technology Pvt Ltd, a firm that was allegedly operating the loan apps -- Ocean Ruppee, Life Wallet, Maloo Wallet, Elephant Cash, Box Cash, and Dutta Rupee. When installed, the apps obtained permissions for access to the gallery, contact list, and location for providing the short-term loans. "When the victims are incapable of repaying the loan amounts, accused persons post their photos on social media platforms by morphing their photos, and threatening calls are also made," the release said. In the past, several people have ended their lives due to harassment from representatives of unauthorised digital lending apps, many of which were found to have ties with Chinese nationals. Agents of such unregulated apps also allegedly threatened to start reaching out to people on victims’ contact lists. In 2020, accused used to work in another loan apps call centre The release said, that in 2020, Chaoping allegedly operated a loan apps call centre named Golden Bag Technologies Pvt. Ltd at Bengaluru. Then, Alam worked as a supervisor and Yadav worked as the IT Manager of the firm. However, when police began to crack down on predatory loan apps in 2020, the release said that the Chaoping left for China. "After 2 months the Chinese national…
