(Yicai Global) Sept. 11 -- Cops in China's Hefei province recently busted a gang of student loan fraudsters who cheated more than 240 university students out of over USD460,000 (CNY3 million), The Paper reported.

One of the suspects surnamed Wang (born in 1994) graduated from a local university in 2015. He found that college students could take out loans and installment plans from online peer-to-peer lending platforms without supplying any guarantee or proof of income. They were only required to fill out an application form, and the loans and installment plans were worth between a few thousand yuan and tens of thousands of yuan. Wang then devised a scam to apply for bank loans using students' identities.

The suspects made acquaintance with university students using popular Chinese instant messaging service QQ and through networking platforms, pretending to be recruiting part-time workers.

They asked students to buy smartphones on installment plans, apply for loans on P2P lending sites, and turn in the phones and loans afterward. Each student received dozens or hundreds of yuan in exchange.

After squandering the money, Wang became unable to repay the loans in August last year, and many students received payment reminders from the lenders. The suspects then tricked and forced students into taking out more loans, and their debts kept growing.

The police have found 246 victims, who borrowed more than CNY3 million from 19 P2P lending sites. Wang was arrested by a procuratorate on fraud charges.

The government has made effective efforts in cracking student loan-related crimes, but the public still cannot drop their guard as fraudsters can concoct new schemes at any moment, the police warned.