TIRUPATI: Tirupati urban police on Friday booked 46 errant instant loan mobile applications for reportedly cheating and harassing the public. Based on complaints, the police and its cyber wing filed a total of 56 FIRs under various sections against the apps, and urged the court to give orders expunging their online presence.
As more number of people are falling prey to such apps, Tirupati SP Ch Venkata Appala Naidu has also requested Director General, Indian Computer Emerging Response Team, Ministry of Communication and IT(New Delhi) to ban these apps and remove their online presence.
Citing the case of a student, who had applied for a loan of Rs 60,000 with one such app, the police said the money-lender disbursed Rs 32,000 only but charged interest for Rs 60,000.During the investigation, the police found that the money lending apps disburse only 40 to 60 per cent of the applied loan amount, but charge the users interest on the entire amount.The apps gather personal details of individuals and invade their digital privacy, which they use to harass people upon failing to clear EMIs on time.
“The average time period these instant loan applications give is six weeks. Upon failing to pay them back within the stipulated time, the lenders start threatening the users by sharing their morphed pictures, with their relatives and in WhatsApp groups,” the police added.Urban SP Venkata Appala Naidu suggested the public to avoid taking personal loans from such instant mobile applications and appealed to them to reach out to police if they are being harassed by such lenders.
Ban fraud apps, SP urges govt
Citing the case of a student, who had applied for a loan of `60,000 with one such app, the police said the money-lender disbursed `32,000 only but charged interest for `60,000. SP Ch Venkata Appala Naidu has urged the Union government to ban such money lending apps