Vehicle loan recovery agent falls prey to loan app extortion

Mumbai: A 38-year-old vehicle loan recovery agent from Chembur registered a complaint with the Deonar police, alleging that she was harassed by loan app recovery agents by morphing her pictures

Mumbai: A 38-year-old vehicle loan recovery agent from Chembur registered a complaint with the Deonar police, alleging that she was harassed by loan app recovery agents by morphing her pictures.

Vehicle loan recovery agent falls prey to loan app extortion

Although the offence was committed earlier this year, the police recorded her formal statement on Tuesday, after which an FIR was registered against an unidentified accused. The complainant, in her statement, said that in February this year her father suffered a paralytic attack and she found herself in dire need of money for the treatment. With no other options, she searched online for loan apps and found Credit Wallet, which she installed on her phone. She borrowed ₹9000, which was credited to her account within 15 minutes of her application. She was supposed to repay the loan in seven days.

“On the sixth day itself, the victim started receiving calls and WhatsApp messages from nine different numbers, demanding repayment. She told the caller that she was unable to so and the number of calls increased. Soon, the caller started making threats and within a few days, the victim started receiving calls from her relatives as well as other people in her contact list, saying that they were receiving obscene images of her on WhatsApp,” said an officer with the Deonar police station.

The victim then checked the images herself and found that her face had been morphed on obscene pictures of other women. She tried calling back on all the numbers from where she had been receiving the threat calls, but the numbers were no longer in use. At the same time, the victim’s boss started getting calls, telling him that the woman had borrowed ₹9000 and was refusing to repay. The harassment got so bad that the victim eventually discontinued the SIM card.

The victim then wrote an email to the State Women’s Commission and also submitted an application to the Deonar police. Based on her application, the police on Wednesday called her for inquiries and recorded her statement.

“We have registered the FIR and are obtaining details of all numbers from which she had received the calls and messages, as well as the numbers that were used to circulate obscene photographs, so that we can trace their location and take the probe forward. Other methods of investigation are also being used,” said senior police inspector Rajesh Kewale, Deonar police station.