Vehicle loan company taken for ride: Gang gets cars, bikes financed by forging docs, bypassing video calls with AI tools

According to the police, a Mumbai-based tech startup with offices in Delhi-NCR approached them with a complaint against unknown accused. It alleged that a group of scamsters managed to finance 35 vehicles from February to May in 2023.

Dr Hemant Tiwari, DCP (IFSO) said, “The loans were procured on forged IDs, photographs, and by impersonation at the time of virtual verification over video calls. On receipt of the complaint, a preliminary inquiry was carried out and a case under sections of impersonation, cheating and forgery was registered.”

Officers said the accused would use different photos and identities of people to get the vehicle loan. “Since the company has a video call verification step, the accused would use a morphed video or other AI software to cheat the system. The accused got 35-40 vehicles in less than six months last year,” said a source.

The police said Ankit started financing Sameer’s plan, and they got these vehicles, including Royal Enfield bikes and cars, issued with forged names. They further sold them to Nisar for a profit.

During the investigation, it was found that vehicles were handed over to the accused from various dealers who worked with the loan company.

“There were two numbers found common in several of these calls between dealers and customers. We decided to check the numbers and found they were being operated by two men Ankit and Harsh. It was then found that the accused had procured multiple forged identities to cheat the company. The company’s audit report and independent investigation revealed that the accused were cheating them for months,” said an officer.

The accused used forged and fake documents, including Aadhaar and PAN cards, to get vehicles financed. Several raids were conducted and Ankit was arrested from his village near Sonipat in Haryana. It was found that he had done his masters in English Honours from Rohtak and started the crime syndicate to earn “quick money”.

“The accused have been cheating since the Covid pandemic got over. Initially, they started giving out loans to locals. They took help from a man named Sameer to learn about the business. Later, they cheated loan companies by posing as clients and getting loans on forged documents. They did use the money to buy vehicles and looked genuine. However, all the vehicles were bought using forged identities and by cheating on video calls,” added the officer.

“They would lie in their loan applications to get money and would spend only half of it to finance vehicles. We are questioning the loan company employees to check if they worked in collusion with officers. We are also looking into what application they used to change or morph faces during video calls,” said another officer.

DCP Tiwari said all the arrested accused were previously involved in criminal cases. A total of 13 vehicles and two mobile phones containing relevant details related to the case have been recovered from the arrested accused.