Bandra Man Harassed by Loan App Scammers Who Used Suggestively Stylized Photos of Himself and His Family

The 39-year-old man filed a complaint with the police, stating that he was harassed by loan sharks because the photos of himself and his family members were changed in an obscene way and shared with his relatives.

According to police, the victim is a resident of Bandra. On October 21, he took a loan from the instant loan app and also shared his photo, PAN card and bank details. While only 2700 rupees were deposited in his bank account, the application from which he received the loan showed an amount of 5014 rupees. Last week, she confronted loan app officials who threatened to alter the photos and send them to numbers of relatives listed on her contact list if she didn’t pay the money.

The fraudsters then negotiated an amount of 4500 TL and paid the said amount. On Wednesday, the complainant received calls from four unknown numbers and the callers kept threatening him to pay the loan money. The victim ignored these threats and then received morphed photos of himself and his family members on WhatsApp from another unknown number. The fraudsters then shared the photos with the victim’s family members and relatives.

Out of fear, the man again paid Rs 5,400 to the fraudsters through an online transaction. However, despite paying the money, the victim continued to receive threats to pay more money, so she contacted the police and filed a criminal complaint. In his complaint, the victim gave details of the fake instant loan app, transaction details and contact numbers of credit recovery representatives to the police.

The police registered a case under section 308 (extortion) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 67A (electronic publication or transmission of material containing sexually explicit acts etc.) of the Information Technology Act.