Malware and fraud syndicate busted, two Chinese among 12 held

New Delhi, Jan 15 : The Delhi Police’s Cyber Cell has busted a transnational malware and fraud syndicate, cheating unsuspecting people with offers of lucrative returns on an online multi-level marketing campaign, and arrested 12 including two Chinese and a Tibetan national, police said on Friday.
Police said that the accused were installing malwares in devices of people in the garb of an MLM app.
In a series of raids that started on January 13, a total of 12 persons have been arrested, including two women Chinese nationals — Chaohong Deng Daoyong, 27, and Wu Jiazhi, 54.
Around 40,000 confirmed victims have been identified who have been cheated of crores in 2 months. An amount of Rs 4.75 crore of cheated money has been blocked in various accounts and more than Rs 25 lakh recovered in cash from arrested Chinese nationals.
“The malicious app was also making millions of Indian users follow thousands of social media accounts of unknown origin and ownership, with huge potential of future misuse of this following by a foreign entity,” DCP, Crime Crime, Anyesh Roy said.
The arrested Indian accused have disclosed that two Chinese nationals — Yangqing Zhang and Bao Peng — are the main kingpins of this huge criminal conspiracy to cheat and defraud Indian citizens and hack into their devices through malicious mobile apps.