When a 22-year-old Zepto employee Sohail Shaikh recently needed some money, a “Magicloan” ad on YouTube for instant micro loans came to his mind. On April 24, he ended up taking a loan of Rs 6,000 from two apps, “Magicloan” and “cashmarket”.
“I was supposed to pay them back on April 30. I would get my salary on May 1, so I thought I would return it a day later. Their (loan apps) people however started calling me on April 29. I told them about the payment deadline but it didn’t matter — they were abusive,” Shaikh told The Indian Express.
His ordeal had just started, though. “A day later, some of my colleagues and relatives called me saying they received a photograph of my wife with obscene things scrawled on it. I was shocked as to how could they get her photo and their numbers. And then I realised they had access to all my phone data. I had to explain to everyone that I had taken a small loan and these people were loan agents. It was traumatic,” he said.
On April 14, a 24-year-old woman from Mumbai’s Charkop lodged an FIR in the Kandivali (West) police station, alleging that cyber fraudsters called her from 25 different mobile numbers and threatened to defame her if she did not repay a loan, which she had never taken, and forced her to pay Rs 4.50 lakh. They also sent obscene messages about her to many people in her contacts list including her family members and friends. Her cousin sister even received a WhatsApp message which tagged her number…
