Hyderabad: The Internet can be a dark place. An online platform, app or any other mode can become the reason for harassment. There are people on these platforms that misuse and exploit the web, for their personal illegal benefit.

One such method has now come with the online money-loan apps. These apps know how to take advantage of a person’s vulnerable situation. With the increase in such cases, the Telangana police on Friday gave a report on it.

They said that there are more than 60 loan applications on Google play store that will claim to provide instant loans. These apps are not registered under Reserve Bank of India as a Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs). Their activities are illegal.

These apps are a nightmare and they do not make sense at all. The money will be provided with a really short term loan payment deal. The time under which you need to repay the loan will be as less as one or two weeks. The interest is huge and upon any delay in the payment of the installments, the interest is then doubled or tripled. All these activities are illegal.

The statement from Telangana DGP’s office has come in the light of recent suicide case of software engineer P. Sunil (29) of Kismatpur. The techie ended up taking his own life after not being able to pay back to these online moneylenders. The pressure and harassment from these moneylenders forced Sunil into taking such a decision.

Also Read: Money Lender's Harassment Drives Techie To Suicide In Kismatpur

Apart from P. Sunil, there have been other similar cases as well. Eddu Srawan Yadav from Narsapur and Kirni Mounika in Siddipet also had similar cases. They ended up taking their own lives after facing harassment from the online moneylenders.

The DGP’s office added that “All the apps have a strange commonality in their methods. They appear to be built upon one SDK which is alleged to be provided by a foreign country. Their actions of calling up friends and families of the victims are also a violation of Rule 3(2) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011.”

“Most of these online apps currently in circulation are not registered with the RBI and therefore do not have the authority to lend to them. Most of these apps have a Chinese way and do not have a registered address or a valid mobile number,” added the DGP office.

These apps take the users’ personal data like pictures, contact information and other details. They will even call the family members and friends of the victim and blackmail them. Some of the apps that the police have blacklisted were also used by P. Sunil.

In Cash, Cash era, Cash lion, Ratheon loan, Alp Cash, Ant cash, Micredit, Dhani, Lucky Rupee, Lazy Pay, Coco cash and Mastermelon are just a couple of the apps. There are many such apps out there. The police have warned against all these apps and requested the public not to share any personal details.

Please contact the police if you get caught up in any such case.