When Raj took out a loan for $110 (£87) in March, he thought it would swiftly solve his financial problems, instead it has made his life much, much worse.
The Pune-based man had been lured into one of India’s many digital loan scams.
Like many, Raj (not his real name), was attracted by the quick and easy loan approval process. All he had to do was download an app to his phone and supply a copy of his identity card to qualify.
He quickly received some money – but only half of the amount he requested. Just three days later the company started demanding he pay back three times the amount they loaned him.
His debts spiralled as he took loans out from other finance apps to pay off the first. Eventually, Raj owed more than $6,000 (£4083), spread across 33 different apps.
Many of the people running those apps began threatening him over repayments but he was too scared to go to the police.
The people running the apps gained access to all the contacts on his phone and his pictures, and have threated to send nude pictures of his wife to everyone on his phone.
To pay off the scammers he has sold all of his wife’s jewellery, but says he is still frightened.
“I don’t think they will let me go. I am scared for my life. I get threating calls and messages everyday,” Raj says.
In India, this type of mobile phone scamming has become all too common. Between 1 January 2020 and 31 March, 2021, a study by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)…
