We have heard of many cases of loan app fraud. In a recent incident, a 28 year old man took a loan of 5,000 from a mobile app and had to repay an amount of Rs 8,200 including the interest amount. However, the recovery agents harassed him and extorted a whopping Rs 4.28 lakh from him.
The kitchen supervisor works as a kitchen supervisor. He was in need urgent need of money for the medical treatment of his wife.
A FIR was registered at the Chunnabhatti police station on June 2.
In the need of money and failing to get anyone’s help he decided to take a loan from an app called ‘Cash Bus’ on the Google Play Store. The man told the police that after installing the app on March 28, he gave access rights to his gallery, contact list and location.
Along with a selfie, he was asked to submit the PAN card number and Aadhaar card details. After the completion of the process, he got a message saying that he will receive Rs 50,000 and will have to return it in 90 days.
Post that he called the customer care number to inquire why he got only Rs 5,000 instead of Rs 50,000 but got no reply.
On April 2, he returned Rs 8,200 including interest, but the harassment did not stop. He used to get calls for payment but still he received calls saying that the amount is not updated in the system.
The Harassment
Post this the real harassment started wherein they morphed his photos and started sending it to him through various phone numbers and also they kept sending his obscene photos from different mobile numbers to him. After that they said harassed him for more money and said that they will send these photos and videos to everyone in his contact list.
A total of 20 mobile numbers were submitted by the man used by this conman for harassment. He ended up paying Rs 1.5 lakh from his own pocket and used to received 200-250 abusive messages from different numbers.
When the man told the recovery agents that he is not having any money then he was asked to repay the loan by taking more loan from other apps.
Then the man ended up taking more loans from other apps in order to stop the harassment and has to pay them Rs 4.28 lakh.
Failing to pay up the loan, the fraudsters sent his morphed photos and videos to people in his contact list. “He faced a lot of social stigma and decided to approach the police,” said the police officers.
He said that “They sent my morphed obscene photos to my bosses and others at my workplace. My mind stopped working. I felt like committing suicide. I just wanted this harassment to stop and under pressure, gave them money. When I read that one person had committed suicide due to the harassment, I mustered courage and approached the police. They sent my morphed photos to my pregnant wife as well. She was very scared due to all this. I still get calls from them. I do not pick up calls from unknown numbers now.”
Other Fraud Cases
A total of 47 loan app fraud cases during March-April have been lodged by Mumbai Police. Out of these 47, police could crack only a single case. 42 such cases were filed during the last year and was able to crack only five of them. However, a Mumbai Police official said hundreds of such incidents have occurred but victims do not wish to come forward to file FIRs.
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