Dangerous Digital Sharks
India Legal|January 18, 2021
In a shocking development, online fraudsters are offering easy loans and using forceful ways to humiliate customers so that they cough up the cash borrowed, leading many to commit suicide in desperation By Shivanand Pandit
Shivanand Pandit
Dangerous Digital Sharks

EVEN as India celebrates the arrival of vaccines against Covid-19, there is another bug from China that may create havoc if not killed by judicial medicine. This is the “digital loan microbe”. There were five suicides within a span of seven days recently in Telangana which were connected to persecution by app-based loan swindlers and moneylenders.

This has increased worries about governing breaches being misused by online fraudsters. The app scam got murkier when the Telangana police identified around 14,000,000 dealings worth Rs 21,000 crore and detained a Chinese national in connection with it.

According to the police, huge transactions have taken place during the last six months and executed over payment gateways and bank accounts linked to these companies. A large number of international transactions have also occurred through bitcoins.

The suspect, Zhu Wei alias Lambo, was in charge of operations for many instant loan app entities such as Aglow Technologies Private Limited, Liufang Technologies Private Limited, Nabloom Technologies Private Limited and Pin print Technologies Private Limited. The Telangana police is investigating more than a dozen payday loaning apps such as Loan Gram, Super Cash and Mint Cash. As per police sources, there are more than 72 apps which are offering loans online without appropriate authorisation from the RBI and obligatory linkups with banks and registered non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

This story is from the January 18, 2021 edition of India Legal.

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This story is from the January 18, 2021 edition of India Legal.

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