The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath has taken a toll on the entire world. The virus created havoc in the world economy with many losing their jobs and struggling to survive as their savings began to rapidly exhaust. As if unleashing the pandemic wasn’t enough, money lending apps with Chinese at the helm, have managed to trap unsuspecting people in Hyderabad and after being tormented for the payment of their dues by the representatives of the money lending apps, at least three people committed suicide to escape further harassment.
In a shocking development, at least three people in Hyderabad have committed suicide after being tormented by the recovery agents of the money lending apps which are believed to be run by Chinese nationals.
The apps upon being downloaded pretty much take all the data from the phone and then deploy recovery agents to force the customers to pay their due amount. The recovery agents then call the customer’s relatives including their wives and friends and use social humiliation as a tactic along with blackmailing to recover the dues which is in violation of the rules.
The apps are of course, illegal and are not sanctioned by the Reserve Bank of India and are exploitative in nature as they grant loans with an exorbitant interest rate. The Telangana Police believe that there are 60 such money lending apps currently on the Google Playstore with most of them being Chinese.
“These apps are run by certain names which are not registered or recognised by the RBI as a NBFC. So, their operations are completely unlawful. Hosting of these apps also violates certain conditions laid by Google. It can be asked to take down these apps,” said the officials.
As more people came forward to complain about the money lending apps, the Hyderabad Police enforced a crackdown on the this racket and arrested 11 persons from Delhi, Gurgaon with the Cyberabad police arresting six others in Hyderabad.
A harassed customer narrating his ordeal to the Police claimed that in a spanof 8 months, he availed a total loan of Rs 30,000 from ‘Cash Mama’but was given only Rs 20,000 after deductions. However, he ended up paying back Rs 29,000 , but that wasn’t enough for the money lending app as he was then further asked to pay up Rs 8,634 more, following which the representatives of the companies started harassing and blackmailing him with dire consequences.
Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar said, “The callers took instructions from their heads in Indonesia. The entire operation of these loan apps appears to be run with Chinese nationals at the helm… The raid in Gurugram led us to a copy of a Chinese national’s passport.”
Kumar added, “According to our information, a Chinese national had come to Hyderabad two-three months ago, set up everything and left. This foreign links issue is a matter of investigation.”
While the Telangana Police continues to crackdown on the money lending apps, Google on its part should remove such apps from its play store as they also violate the company’s rules and regulations.