How Instant loan app scam is killing Indians: BBC documentary unearths sinister plot & modus operandi

New Delhi: Instant loan apps, within years of roll-out, took Indian & other Asian markets by storm and penetrated deep into all strata of society. However, it has turned out to be a ‘killer’. A BBC documentary by journalist Poonam Agarwal has exposed the whole machination & modus operandi of blackmailers & extortionists, operating under the garb of loan app scam and how they coerced & drove many innocent people to death in last few years.

According to reports, more than 60 people have killed themselves in last 3 years as they weren’t able to withstand abuse, humiliation & harassment by the loan recovery agents. The Instant loan Apps operates is as many as 14 countries across Asia, Africa & Latin America and has its masters/owners based in China.

Poonam Agarwal, in her undercover investigation over 18 months, went to unearth the whole modus operandi of app kingpin and its managers & recovery agents to first entice & entrap gullible loan seekers and then humiliating & torturing them to an extent where they are driven to brink of suicide.

My investigative documentary on #loanApps scam that has affected millions of Indians. It’s a film of 3Ss, (exposing) SCAM, SHAME & SUICIDE.

English link- https://t.co/ZOVdmzETKK

Hindi Link –https://t.co/kNlxYiA4aC

Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati & Punjabi- Links to follow

— Poonam Agarwal (@poonamjourno) October 11, 2023

Poonam Agarwal is an award winning journalist and over the years, she has worked with many reputed media organisations.

Bhoomi Sinha took Rs 20 lakh loan, shamed with pics

The 43-minute documentary sheds light on how these killer apps function and how they have been destroying lives in India.

Bhoomi Sinha, a widowed woman borrowed Rs 47,000 money from various apps in 2021. A lot of it got deducted in charges and she was told to pay back after a week only. She ended up taking loan from other apps. The debt & interest on these loans kept spiraling and within some months, she owed more than Rs 20 lakh to different apps.

As the debts mounted, she started receiving multiple calls through the day. Unable to cough up such huge amount, she requested to buy some time but the callers/recovery agents were unrelenting. They escalated pitch and started harassing, threatening & torturing her in multiple calls through the day. Many a times, calls were nasty as they hurled abuses and called her names.

This didn’t stop here. They threatened her to sully her & her daughter’s image by sharing details to her phone contacts. She borrowed more money from friends, family & other apps to repay them. However, one Asan App kept on blackmailing her. In one such instance, it even shared morphed nude image to her employer.

Bhoomi was so shaken & shattered by the experience that she thought killing herself, a couple of times but her daughter kept her going.

“I tried committing suicide but couldn’t do so because of my child. I had many sleepless nights,” she said.

‘Ensnare & entrap’ strategy of loan apps

The documentary shows how the loan apps first lay a trap for the gullible loan seekers. They offer money to people without conditions and once deal is inked, they become its prey. The Apps then keep making money out of people’s misery & fear.

Within months of loans disbursal, these apps deploy recovery agents to extract money from borrowers. Initially, the recovery calls are cordial & friendly but turn hostile & horrible if the borrower cites inability in repaying it. Threatening & extortion calls become a routine then.

Recovery agents’ modus operandi on extorting money

The recovery agents, allegedly employed by these instant loan apps dwell on people’s weak links to extract money from them. These agencies resort to all means of humiliation & harassment and a whole ecosystem is pressed into service for this.

Callers are trained by managers on abusing & threatening borrowers, who in turn operate under the aegis of app owners.

One of the managers in loan recovery firms explained, “Every person has a number in his mobile contact list that can destroy his/her life. Picking up that raw nerve is the trick.”

(The eye-opening documnetary on Instant loan App scam has also releeased in Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati and Punjabi)