Borrowers blackmailed, threatened: Cyber police ask Google to take down 9 ‘predatory’ loan apps

The investigations revealed that a large number of victims from low-income groups were lured by the promise of quick, no-paperwork loans, which were mostly in the range of Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000. Once the loan amounts were transferred to the borrowers, the nightmare began. Borrowers were allegedly harassed with incessant calls and if payments weren’t made immediately.

The cyber criminals operating these loan apps did not stop the harassment even after recovering thrice or four times the loan amount. As the helpless victims stopped payment, the cyber criminals began issuing threats, in many cases from numbers with Pakistan codes. In some cases, fake nudes digitally altered from the victims’ social media profiles were used to intimidate them. In some cases, these fake nude photos were sent to the contacts of the victims to further humiliate and pressure them.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shivaji Pawar said, “We had been receiving multiple complaints about fraud and extortion from people who had sought small instant loans from phone-based apps. Most of the people who were targeted through these apps were daily-wage earners, people from low-income groups and even college students who were in need of small loans with immediate effect. It has come to light that these apps were downloaded from Google Play Store.”

As the team led by Assistant Inspector Praveen Swami started looking into the origin of these apps, it came to light that none of them were registered with any institutional framework of the Government of India. Subsequently, Swami and Inspector Ravikiran Nale initiated multiple communications with Google Play Store to take down as many as nine fraudulent apps. “According to our information, five applications have been taken down and correspondence regarding four more is ongoing,” Pawar said.

An officer, who is part of the probe, said, “The operators of these apps are like digital loan sharks but employing tactics such as online blackmail and extortion. These apps offer small amounts to the most financially vulnerable — for example students trying to pay rent, daily-wage workers covering emergency expenses — and then trap them in a cycle of fear and extortion. For example, using phone numbers of Pakistan codes left the victims fearful that people from Pakistan were involved. But the fact is these are cyber criminals operating from India with backing from masterminds in China and Singapore. None of the apps were registered with any official lending institutions and have masked their origins with shell companies operating mostly from fake addresses. We urge people to avoid downloading suspicious financial apps and to report any cases of online harassment linked to such applications.”

Investigation had recently revealed that repeated harassing calls from Pakistani numbers, threats to circulate morphed nude images to contacts and extortion for exorbitant loan recoveries were among the coercive tactics used by a cyber criminal targeting hundreds of people who had taken small loans through various mobile apps. The accused, a Tamil Nadu native residing in Mumbai, was arrested in the case and was found to have links to international operatives based in Singapore and China.