Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu): The Tamil Nadu Police nabbed a five-member gang that used 200 SIM cards to threaten users who took loans through a foreign-based app, according to media reports.

Police traced the culprits after a tip-off from a woman in Tamil Nadu's Tiruppur district, NDTV reported.

The woman had alleged that she was receiving a string of messages threatening to list her as a prostitute and upload her pictures on an "escort service" website if she did not repay.

Initially, the woman took a loan of Rs 3,000 but later took another Rs 15,000 after the gang lured her with easy web links to click for easy disbursal of funds.

The gang allegedly ran an illegal "telephone exchange", meaning that they used devices to link up to 200 SIM cards to one mobile phone number, Shashank Sai, Superintendent of Police, was quoted as saying in the report.

Police said the gang worked for two loan apps in Nigeria, and one each from Indonesia and China, police said.

To hide their whereabouts, the gang used a virtual private network (VPN) to connect to the internet, said the officer.

One IMEI — a number unique to every mobile phone, one per SIM slot — was found to have been connected to 40 devices, he added.

Police have charged the accused with cheating and impersonation, besides invoking the IT Act, according to the NDTV report.