Dismantling of a Network of ‘Drop by Drop’ Loan Scammers: Threats, Extortion, and Illegal Constraints

On this Friday afternoon, the Judicial Police, Dijín, announced the scope of an operation that allowed the dismantling of a network dedicated to ‘drop by drop’ loans, through the internet, social networks and applications.

In fact, who If they fell behind with their payments, they were threatened with death, as was their family.

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According to Dijín, the investigation was led by the Cyber ​​Center, which for 16 months was after the identification of the group members.

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The investigators established that this criminal organization – in 2019 – created a company from which 14 front companies were derived, using corporate names related to legal advice and call centers.

“Once legally constituted, the 14 companies they created more than 20 loan web applications, and formalized accounts on social networks located in Turkey, India, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Costa Rica and Mexico; to promote easy and fast loan applications hosted on the Play Store“, indicated Dijín.

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During the process they established that One of the bosses is a young woman of Chinese nationality, who arrived in Colombia in 2017, known as Celeste.who was captured in Bogotá along with 8 other people.

Tentacles in various parts of the world

The arrests were made in coordination with the Attorney General’s Office in Bogotá and Medellín and in the municipalities of Madrid and Mosquera in (Cundinamarca).

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The group, according to Dijín, had tentacles in Guatemala, Argentina, Mexico, China and Colombia, and through the ‘virtual drop by drop’ loans, they affected approximately 1,365 people, who filed the respective complaints for the facts presented.

They charged up to 60 percent interest

Those captured “created bank accounts associated with front companies to send and receive money with the victims, carrying out the first payment between 5 and 10 days of each month, reaching interest rates of up to 60 percent, exceeding those legally authorized.”

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Along these lines, the investigators managed to establish that, given the people’s inability to pay, “the criminal organization offered refinancing with the same applications and By not receiving payments, they accessed the personal data of those affected to carry out threats, extortion and illegal constraints. and the money collected was distributed among fictitious companies for laundering and diversion abroad.”

Domain extinction for 2,000 million pesos

“The investigative process included the participation of accounting and computer forensic experts, which allowed apply precautionary measures for the extinction of the right of ownership to movable and immovable property valued at more than 2 billion pesos“, highlighted the judicial authority.

In a call center raided, Dijín stated, More than 500 people worked and at the same time this criminal organization had an international office. to make payments abroad under the same modality to citizens of other countries.

(You may be interested in reading: The testimony of a victim of scammers through a ‘call center’)

Those captured were prosecuted for access, abuse of a computer system, use of malicious software, violation of personal dataillegal constraint, extortion, usury, massive and habitual collection of money, money laundering and conspiracy to commit a crime.

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