These fraudsters started targeting needy victims facing economic hardships. They offered easy loans with high processing fees and high EMI. Some also implanted bugs/virus within the victim’s cell phone and transmitted all their personal information, documents, Bank related data to Foreign servers.
These unregulated lenders offered instant loans ( in several minutes ) starting from as small as Rs 1000 to Rs 1 Lakh with interest rates from 18& to high 50%. The online lender copies user data when the app is downloaded.
“Many of such apps are not registered with the RBI and are illegally running the show in the country. In our investigation, we found that there are hundreds of such apps in Google Playstore and millions of people have downloaded them,” said Cyber Cell officials.
Many borrowers have been fallen prey to such illegal and unauthorized loan apps. While some victims have revealed their plight, others have killed themselves after they were harassed by app-makers to an extreme level.
Since December 20, six people died of suicide in Telangana due to harassment by fraud loan apps. The state police have arrested four Chinese nationals and registered 50 cases related to loan app scam.
The Reserve Bank of India has also raised concern over the recent scams in online lending and cautioned users against loans being offered by unauthorised digital platforms. The Central bank requested people to verify the background of entities that were offering easy and lucrative loans.
The RBI also urged people to never share copies of KYC documents with unidentified persons, unverified/unauthorised apps.
State Bank of India (SBI) has also cautioned against loans being offered by unauthorised digital platforms, mobile applications promising a quick and hassle-free process. “Beware of fraudulent instant loan apps! Please do not click on unauthorized links or provide your details to an entity impersonating as SBI or any other bank. Visit https://bank.sbi for all your financial needs,” tweet from SBI Official handle – link
https://twitter.com/TheOfficialSBI/status/1347797409296834562
Several Guidelines were also issued by RBI
https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=50846
RBI Official press release advised people to beware of such scamster and use Sachet portal (https://sachet.rbi.org.in) to file an on-line complaint.
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