Man forcibly given Rs 4K loan ends up repaying Rs 3.6L to loan sharks

A 25-year-old man installed a loan providing application on his mobile phone after which a loan of Rs 4800 was credit in his bank account despite not making any request for loan. A week later, the complainant was asked to pay double the money for having taken the loan and was threatened that messages defaming him would be sent to those in his contact list if he did not pay. In the span of one month, the man ended up paying Rs 3.67 lakh to the loan sharks and when he uninstalled the application from his phone, the loan sharks sent defamatory messages to his relatives.

The police said the complainant runs a grocery store near Panvel. He came across the loan providing app while surfing on the internet on December 7, 2021. “When he clicked on the advertisement of the app it got downloaded on his phone. He then shared his bank account details on the app and allowed all permissions. However, he was surprised when a loan amount of Rs 4800 was credited to his bank account, without

having made any loan request,” said a police officer.

On December 15, the complainant received a phone call from an unknown man who told him that he would have to pay Rs 8056 for the loan taken. “The caller asked the complainant to make the payment on a link sent to him on WhatsApp. The complainant

obliged and made the payment, following which he kept receiving threatening messages forcing him to make more payments. He then uninstalled the application,” the officer said.

The complainant then learned that abusive messages were being sent to his relatives and got a police complaint registered.