Puducherry Police Begins Crackdown On 69 Loan Apps For Extortion & Blackmail

Several women have fallen prey to these loan apps and even after a single default, the morphed photographs of these women were sent to their husbands.

A representational image of a loan app

Puducherry: The cyber police in Puducherry have registered a case against 69 loan apps following complaints of extortion, threats and blackmailing by these fintech apps.

The Cyber cell officials told IANS that a case has been registered under Section 66(A), 67, and 67(A) of the Information Technology Act and 420 of the IPC against these financial apps that are available in the google play store.

The police, according to officials, have already sent emails to the app platforms to delink these apps from their platforms. According to the sleuths, the Puducherry Union Territory has received more than 45 complaints against the loan apps in the past six months.

These apps are attractive to housewives, students and people with low-income jobs who have difficulties in getting bank loans as they require several proceedings.

An engineering student, who had to pay Rs 70,000 after he took a loan of Rs 10,000 told IANS, "The loan apps are threatening me that they would morph my photographs into sexual postures and circulate it among my family and friends. They are asking for Rs 12,000 more which I cannot provide."

He said that the loan apps have already taken the details of his PAN card, Aadhaar card as well as the details of his bank accounts and these people are able to access his phone address book.

Several women have fallen prey to these loan apps and even after a single default, the morphed photographs of these women were sent to their husbands. An officer with the Cyber cell police, while speaking to IANS, said, "In many cases, the police had to intervene and speak to the families of the affected women to make them believe."

The major hurdle faced by the investigating team is the presence of the servers hosting these apps in foreign countries. However, officials of the Puducherry cyber cell told IANS that they are on the job and will crack it and bring relief to the people who have faced extortion, threats, and blackmailing by these app providers and their agents.