Loan app fraud news: Predatory moneylenders have taken digital avatars. And they are not stopping at coercing borrowers to repay astronomical interest. They are harassing borrowers by calling their friends and relatives with sensational allegations or even sharing lewd morphed photos.

For instance, a man took Rs 20,000 loan for a week through a finance app. He had to repay Rs 30,000 to close the loan. And he did that. But even after repaying the loan along with 50% interest for a week, he started getting threats of non-payment. Moreover, when he refused to pay again, the lenders sent a message to his wife saying he had raped someone!

The above story is real and recently shared by Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath on social media.

There are many loan apps that provide quick money. But when you try to avail loan from such apps, they seek full access to contacts, messages, photos etc.

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Nithin says the number of people getting fleeced by shady and illegal loan apps has gone up significantly. Individuals caught up in the web of these apps frequently resort to drastic actions such as suicide.

He further says these apps deduct 10% upfront. And the interest rates they charge range from 50% to 100% or even over 200%.

“Traditional loan sharks resort to physical threats to recover money. These loan apps harass people by calling all their contacts and sharing private photos and lewd pictures that are morphed,” says Nithin.

I hope all of you are smart enough not to fall in trap of such loan apps. It’s time to make your family and friends aware about such apps as well.

Lessons for you👇

• Never allow shady apps providing quick loans to have full access to your contacts, messages, photos and videos on your smartphones.
• Never take loan from anyone other than RBI approved lenders

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