Instant loan app scam

How it works

A quick-loan app asks for access to your contacts and photos, charges hidden fees, then harasses you and your contacts — sometimes with edited photos — to pay far more than you borrowed.

Red flags

• !The app asks for access to your contacts, photos and messages.
• !The lender is not a bank or an RBI-registered company you can look up.
• !Much less money arrives than the loan amount shown, after “processing fees”.
• !Repayment is demanded within days.
• !Threats to message your contacts or share edited photos of you.

Example

Threatening to shame a borrower is illegal. A registered lender does not collect this way.

This is an illustration of the pattern, not a copy of a real message. Real ones vary in wording.

What to do

1. 01Do not borrow from another app to repay this one.
2. 02Remove the app’s permissions in your phone settings, then uninstall it.
3. 03Keep screenshots of the threats, the numbers they came from and your payments.
4. 04Report the harassment to the police and on the cyber crime portal.
5. 05Tell your close contacts that they may receive false messages about you.

Where to report

• RBI Sachet

  Report an unregistered lender to the Reserve Bank of India.

  Open sachet.rbi.org.in

• Call 1930

  The national cyber-fraud helpline. If money has left your account, call straight away — the sooner it is reported, the better the chance of the money being frozen.

  Call 1930

• National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal

  File a complaint online at cybercrime.gov.in. Keep the acknowledgement number it gives you.

  Open cybercrime.gov.in

• Sanchar Saathi (Chakshu)

  Report the suspicious call, SMS or WhatsApp number to the Department of Telecommunications, even if you lost nothing.

  Open sancharsaathi.gov.in