Bengaluru, July 13: Another life has been claimed in Bengaluru due to the fraud of Chinese based loan apps. The despicable act of a Kerala-based student surrendering to hanging after he could not bear the harassment of a loan of ₹40,000 has come to light.
This is not the first time that such incidents are happening. Many people have committed suicide in the last three or four years due to app extortion and blackmail through China. How do these apps work? Read this article to know how interest rates are reduced after giving a loan.
A vibrant microloan business post-Covid
The Covid pandemic has caused widespread suffering across the globe. China-based microloan apps have become popular with this helplessness in mind. These apps target students, the financially illiterate, low-income youth and gambling addicts.
The popularity of these micro-credit loan applications has reached not only in the metropolis but also in most of the cities and towns of India. These apps offer loans targeting people who are facing economic hardships and unemployment post-Covid. It’s not even like borrowing millions. A few come down to usury by providing loans of thousands of rupees.
APPS PROCEDURE
Loan apps from China can be downloaded for free through the Google Play Store. These are easily operated through phone apps. These loan apps adopt a paperless loan disbursement process.
These loan apps are mostly targeted at students and youth with low income. Only a few thousand can be availed through these. After lending, app users’ data and other contact sources are stolen.
It has been confirmed in some past cases that users’ phones are also hacked. Through this, it has come to light that the phone numbers of borrowers’ family members are stolen.
Chinese loan apps preying on Indians
The Indian government has banned many Chinese loan apps in the past. However, some apps are active on the Google Play Store. These are of Chinese origin and are being smuggled. These are not licensed by the government. These apps have a network of fraud and then extort money after giving the loan. They are going to blackmail the borrowers who do not give in to this.
Lure of low interest rate while lending
China-based loan apps lure people with low interest rates while lending. After that they make the interest rate higher. A number of reasons begin to be given for this. If, the borrowers question about the increase in interest rate, they start blackmailing.
Use of Morph Photos for Blackmail
They threaten to mutilate borrowers’ photos and share them on social media. For example, the face is the borrower’s, the naked body attached to it is something else. Borrowers who claim not to pay high interest rates are sent these photos through WhatsApp and threatened.
More inhumane than this, the photos of the morphed daughter (i.e. the loaned one) are sent to the father’s WhatsApp. Even after paying off the entire loan, even if the interest rate is high, you will be tormented again for not paying. A penalty is also imposed for this. There were also instances where the borrowers did not budge, physically strong men went to their houses and threatened to extort money.
Even more tragic, there have been incidents where people taking these loans do not understand the terms and conditions of the loans they are getting.
Apps on Google Playstore
Apps active in India are Rise Cash, Cash Ray, MobiPocket, Infinity Cash, Credit Mango, CB Loan, Cash Tree, Minute Cash, Cash Lite, HDB Loan, SnapItLoan, Go Cash and OK Cash. Apart from this, hundreds of loan apps are working.
Extortion practices through these apps are costing innocent lives. Tens of victims of such fraudulent loans have committed suicide under the pressure of threats. Chinese fraudsters operate illegally in neighboring countries including Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam. If this is not prevented, more tragedies are bound to happen in the near future.
