‘There should be a temporary halt on all quick loan apps’: Cyber security expert Ritesh Bhatia

No. This is not a new trend as these apps providing micro loans of around Rs 2,000–10,000 began during the pandemic when people were in desperate need of money as many had lost their jobs. These loan apps provide you instant loans without requiring as much as KYC details which made them popular. When these apps said they would charge, for example, eight per cent interest, many didn’t realise it was eight per cent per day and not per month and hence, at times, ended accruing interest as high as 66 per cent. If you cannot make the payment, they will keep calling you. Many took loans from another micro loan app to pay the first one, thereby entering a vicious circle. At times, agents also send messages to your relatives claiming they were named as guarantors in order to apply pressure on people.

Now there are morphed videos of people where their faces are superimposed on nude persons that are being circulated to shame them into paying up.

Yes, now it seems that the desperation to collect the money has gone up. While earlier they stopped at contacting your relatives and friends, now they are going a step further by creating morphed photographs and videos showing these people doing obscene things. These videos are then sent to family and friends. This causes major embarrassment and this has even driven people to end their lives. It has become very dirty. The other day, one of my clients said she received rape threats from these callers. They further told her family and friends she was involved in a kidnapping racket. She told me she felt like committing suicide.

Have you been able to find which companies are involved in this?

In certain cases, a China link has emerged whereby the money collected has been sent to China through cryptocurrency. It is possible that some of the defunct NBFCs (non-bank financial companies) may be getting backing from outside the country to collect money using any means possible.

Recently, Google has revised its guidelines to ensure that such unregistered loan apps cannot use its platform…

I am not sure to what extent that will help since they can even upload the links of these apps on their websites and send you the same through SMS or Whatsapp.

So then, what is the way out?

The extent to which these incidents have gone up, there should be a temporary halt on all quick loan apps. The RBI should come up with certain directives like putting out a list of 50 registered apps, the limits of interest that can be charged and rules of recovery. They should publicise this so that people are aware. Another important step is that when a person goes to the police with a complaint, there should be no victim-shaming. The police should bolster their courage and tell them not to worry as these people are vulnerable.