The Mumbai Cyber Cell issued lookout notices for two Chinese nationals suspected to be the kingpins of the loan app scam wherein lakhs of Indians have been duped of thousands of crores since 2019. After two months of extensive investigation, the cops have now unearthed how the loan app scam started and flourished in the country. Cyber cops have found that the business was established in 2018 by a group of Chinese nationals headed by Liu Yi. Yi is also absconding in a money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate. The Bhubaneshwar police, too, have issued a lookout circular against him recently.

As per the cyber experts who are probing the case, following extensive reportage by mid-day which compelled the previous government to take cognisance of the scam and issue directions to both state and Mumbai cyber cells to launch an investigation, the gang has been operating in India since 2019 and gained momentum during the pandemic in 2020. The officers have so far arrested 14 people from different parts of the country while investigating as many as 23 cases, which have since been clubbed, related to loan app scam and harassment by loan recovery agents.