Kochi: The Thrissur Cyber Crime Police arrested Vivek Prasad and Vinay Prasad, Malyali brothers settled in New Delhi, for siphoning off lakhs of rupees from the public, especially from those in Kerala, by promising fake online loans.

The brothers were arrested at a time when Kochi city cyber police and the Panangad police were inquiring into the fraud. The police team led by Assistant Commissioner Y.Nizamuddhin and Panangad Station Inspector K.N.Manoj are now questioning them.

A gang led by them used to commit online loan fraud in the name of fake financial enterprises. They had siphoned off Rs 1.5 lakh from Prabhilal of Panangad by promising him a loan of Rs. 2 lakh The accused also took Rs.20 lakh from a native of Malappuram promising a loan for a huge sum.

The police have received the information that around 20 persons, who have good command over various languages, are members of the gang led by the brothers.

The brothers were born and brought up in Delhi. Their father hails from Karthikapally in Haripad and their mother from Tiruvalla.

Fraud through SMS
The public was lured by these fraudsters through SMS by promising loans for one percent interest for women and 2 percent interest for men.

Those who got trapped in this offer were later called by a person introducing himself as an "executive agent". He would ask them to send copies of their bank statements, Aadhaar Card and Pan Card through WhatsApp. Later, a loan approval letter will be sent by the fraudsters.

The edited version of the agreement, which was readily available on the websites of reputed banks, was sent to the person. Thereafter the unsuspecting persons were asked to pay agreement fees. For this, the bank account numbers existing in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh were used.

Once the agreement fee was paid, an agreement letter was sent to the person. Again the gang used to ask for more money through a demand draft, saying that the loan amount was not entering into the person's bank account.

They would also ask the lured persons to pay more for insurance and tax. Finally, after siphoning off the maximum amount from the public, they would withdraw money from the ATM counters in Delhi and then switch off their mobile phone.