Blackmail, suicides to nudes, 10 things to know about the horrifying instant loan app scams

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Online scams are not a new thing and have existed for long, harking back to the days of emails when the infamous ‘Nigerian Prince' spam mail was sent to trap innocent victims. However, in recent times, the scammers have grown more vicious and nefarious in their ways. One such example is the instant loan app scam. These are the apps that offer instant, hassle-free loans to people in need of money but they charge a much higher rate of interest than banks. While not all such apps are predatory, many of them are. The scammers behind these apps use every trick in the book from harassment, humiliation, and blackmail to make victims repay the money with a ridiculously high rate of interest. Check these 10 points to know how they operate and how to protect yourself from them.

Recently, BBC conducted an undercover investigation in India to expose the modus operandi of these cybercriminals. The report highlights as many as 60 Indians have been pushed to suicide after they were unable to handle the constant harassment, abuse, and blackmail.

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1. These apps offer loans without any due diligence, or paperwork, and offer the money within a few minutes, which makes them a lucrative proposition to those who are in desperate need of financial assistance. However, not all that glitters is gold.

Even when such scam apps disburse the loan amount after you install it and fill out a basic digital form, the money received is often much less than what was promised. The app does not disclose it upfront, and instead later explains it away as processing fee and other operational costs.

2. But the nefarious activity takes place in the background, as many such apps often steal photos of the users, their contacts,