Do you want everyone on your contact list including family, friends, coworkers and more to receive phone calls and WhatsApp messages from random numbers asking them to remind you that you haven’t? repaid a loan you had recently taken out? If your answer is no, then here’s a tip: don’t take a loan from that random app you found online.

The full extent of the reach of these obscure and unregulated applications in India has yet to be identified. and the authorities are only beginning to probe them.

Reuters

The investigation that began in Telangana has since spread to other states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, where similar cases have been filed.

Police in Telangana alone have filed at least 50 cases and arrested 29 people, including three Chinese nationals, to date.

The cases were recorded after at least five people, including a software engineer, allegedly ended their lives following harassment from loan providers to repay them.

These app-based loan providers that are not registered or fall under RBI regulations target employed people or students with short-term loans., which often have a high interest rate.

Screenshot

Since this is instant approval, with no paperwork or other usual formalities, people who are in urgent need of cash will fall in love with it.

The loaned amount is credited to the applicant’s account after deduction of the “administration fees”.

The problem begins when borrowers fail to repay on time

The problem begins when the borrower does not repay the loan on time. It starts with callback calls, which can range from mild to rude depending on the amount.

If the borrower still does not pay the amount, the tone of the appeals turns into abuse and harassment.

BCCL

And these calls will not only be limited to the borrower. Since they already have access to the phonebook and call history through the permissions granted to the app during installation, they can use it to identify the borrower’s relatives and start calling them with threatening messages. .

Chennai saw four people get arrested

In Chennai, where four people were arrested by police in connection with the case for providing more than 1,000 SIM cards to loan applications.

The investigation found that the SIM cards used by the defendants were fraudulently purchased by managers of an urban digital company with the help of two people, including the territory sales manager of a mobile service provider.

They purchased 1,100 SIM cards and the standard procedure required for issuing SIM cards was not followed.

The mobile numbers, used as part of the loan app’s operations, were used to “intimidate and abuse” the person who could not repay and their mobile phone contacts.

Reuters

Even Kerala has fallen prey

In Kerala, the police hi-tech cell said it had encountered several cases where people who have taken out loans and their families have been the victims of a barrage of abuse and harassment as a result of these loans.

According to some of the victims, their loan amount doubled and tripled in a matter of weeks and they were forced to take out another loan from another application to pay off the first loan, thus finding themselves in a debt trap.

As the in-state investigation continues, police are hiring data analysis experts to study the big data, as a preliminary investigation into the financial transactions of online loan enforcement companies found 1 , 4 crore of transactions worth almost Rs 21,000 crore.