CHENNAI: The city police’s cyber-crime wing is probing at least half-a-dozen complaints received in the past two weeks from people claiming they were being threatened by ‘staff’ of loan apps. Police are also looking into the possibility of a Chinese angle to the racket.
In one case, police said, Chetpet resident Kiran Kumar, who works at a private hotel, on January 26 borrowed Rs 7,000 through OB Cash Loan. He received only Rs 4,060, with the rest deducted as processing fee, but was asked to repay Rs 7,000 within six days. He began paying, but continued to receive calls and messages from the ‘staff’ working with the app. When he demanded a breakup of cash paid, his family and friends were flooded by messages from the ‘firm’ declaring him a ‘loan defaulter’. He then filed a police complaint.
An officer in the cybercrime wing said they received similar complaints from many other people and appealed to people to avoid taking loans through such apps that were neither registered with RBI nor the non-banking financing corporation (NBFC).
The OB Cash Loan app, which works under the android mobile operating system, claims it has more than one lakh downloads and that it is rated 4.6/5 stars, but the reviews are mixed. Customers Rahul Ingavale and Rinku Mudgil termed it terrible, while Shaik Shakeer, who like Praveen Kumar applied for a loan of Rs 7,000 but got only Rs 4,060 and was asked to pay the entire amount, said it was the worst ever loan app he had taken money from.
