Insta loans: Cyberabad police brief RBI officials on modus operandi

During the meeting, DCP (Crimes) Cyberabad Police Rohini Priyadarshini explained the modus operandi of the online loan applications which were developed by companies

Hyderabad: Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar on Thursday held a detailed meeting with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Regional Director K Nikhila and other officials of the RBI regional office, on the misuse of online applications by the Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and other entities in the name of instant personal loans.

During the meeting, DCP (Crimes) Cyberabad Police Rohini Priyadarshini explained the modus operandi of the online loan applications which were developed by companies that have an agreement with various NBFCs and others.

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These entities run the application and also call centres for making calls to the loanee in case of default. They categorise the defaulters into different buckets based on the number of days lapsed from the due date and make threatening and abusive calls and also send messages not only to the loanee but also to the relatives and his/her contacts. The police informed the RBI officials that these entities were also resorting to sending fake legal notices in the name of CBI in order to induce fear among the defaulters/loanees.

The RBI officials explained about the bank’s regulations on digital lending platforms/mobile apps and said that legitimate public lending activities could be undertaken by Banks, NBFCs registered with the RBI, and other entities regulated by the State governments under statutory provisions. Further, names of the digital lending platforms engaged as agents should be disclosed on the websites of Banks/NBFCs and the digital lending platforms engaged as agents were required to disclose to the customer the name of the bank/NBFC on whose behalf they were transacting, the officials said.
The officials highlighted the recent RBI press releases wherein members of the public were cautioned not to fall prey to the activities of unscrupulous elements but to verify the antecedents of the company/firm offering loans online or through mobile apps.

Mentioning that the names and addresses of the NBFCs registered with the RBI can be accessed on the bank’s website, the officials suggested that the public can report information about unverified/unauthorized apps to the law enforcement agencies concerned or use RBI’s Sachet portal (https://sachet.rbi.org.in) for filing online complaints. Complaints against the entities regulated by the RBI could be accessed through RBI’s Complaint Management System (https://cms.rbi.org.in).

The Cyberabad Police appealed to the public not to fall prey to the online instant loan apps and if there was any harassment, contact them through dial 100 or WhatsApp number of Cyber Crime PS 9490617310 and not to resort to extreme steps.

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