Blacklisted loan apps trying to lure customers
Hyderabad: Fake online loan app managements appear to be striving hard to regain lost customers and make new ones. According to the police, they are resorting to desperate measures including crediting loan amounts without requests or applications from customers. The Reserve Bank of India had recently blacklisted about 130 fake loan apps, most of which […]
Hyderabad: Fake online loan app managements appear to be striving hard to regain lost customers and make new ones. According to the police, they are resorting to desperate measures including crediting loan amounts without requests or applications from customers.
The Reserve Bank of India had recently blacklisted about 130 fake loan apps, most of which were of Chinese origin and lured customers with ‘low rate of interests’ and ‘easy repayment’ options.
After the RBI move, many of these apps are now identifying their old and current customers and crediting loan amounts between Rs.5,000 to Rs.10,000 on an average and Rs 2 lakh in some incidents, into their wallets and bank accounts. This is done neither on the request of the customer nor with their permission, police said.
“There have been a few incidents where without the permission of customers, loans were credited into their bank accounts, after debiting the first-month interest and charges,” an official said, adding that soon, the harassment from the app management would begin, pressurizing the customer to repay the loan.
According to officials, investigations into several fake loan apps complaints had revealed that interstate gangs with the support of Chinese nationals were establishing call centres in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Noida and Bengaluru and running operations.
The tele-callers, both men and women, employed by the loan app managements start harassment calls to customers. It is learnt that each employee is handed over contact numbers of between 50 -100 customers of the loan apps and targets are set to collect money by all means.
“Though the principal amount and monthly interests are paid fully, they still demand more money and harass in all possible ways including threatening to defame and physical attacks. There is no particular time for harassment,” an official said.
Harassment for men and women are different. While men are threatened that their reputation would be tarnished, women are targeted by morphing their photographs and threatening to upload them on social media.
“The motive of these loan app companies is lending small amounts and collecting four or five times more of it from customers. In most of the cases, Chinese nationals are known to have been running such companies directly or indirectly across the country,” a senior police official said.
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