BEWARE: Chinese Loan Apps and Youtube Comment Scams | Dhruv Rathee

Hello, friends! Taking loans is quite a risky bit. People get trapped by taking unnecessary loans. Or they take loans without knowing whether they can repay it or not. This is how a Debt Trap begins. Some people commit suicide due to the burden of loans. This is a classical scenario. But in this case, the company giving out loans cannot be faulted. There's nothing illegal in such scenarios. But nowadays, there are some different loan-related problems. There are some apps where you take loans, repay them, but even then, more money is demanded from you. Loan apps that blackmail you and threaten to publicly shame you. Threaten to send your morphed photos to your family. This might sound like a plot of a thriller film, but for many, this is the harsh reality nowadays. This is being done by several Chinese Loan Apps. In today's awareness-related video, come let's understand these scams in detail. "Chinese Loan App, or rather, a tool to destroy your life." "Love and fraud can strike anyone." "There's no other option." "They borrowed quick loans to support their families, but the killer Chinese Loan Apps got the better of them." 2-3 months ago, news broke that Delhi police arrested around 22 people for sending ₹5 billion to China. Through Hawala trading. The mastermind of the scam was an Indian guy, Anil Kumar. He was in touch with Chinese people based in China. Anil and his accomplices had employed about 150 people who were served notice by the police. This isn't standalone news. Over the last few months, there have been several such instances where the police or the Enforcement Directorate arrested people related to the Chinese Loan Apps, or confiscated millions of rupees. The police stated that Indians were hired and trained by Chinese nationals, they were operating several shell companies, fake companies, that had illegal call centres. After hearing such news, you should've understood, this isn't some petty theft or scam. Companies were properly being registered, at proper addresses, using the identity cards of Indians. These companies had dummy directors, dummy seals, digital signatures, they are linked to payment gateways, they set up their call centres, created apps for phones, only for frauding people. Interestingly, the system works so well, that there isn't a single Chinese loan app, rather, there are several such apps in the market. The police have noticed several separate incidents of this taking place all across the nation. Last year, in March, Hyderabad police busted such a racket. Two guys from Karnataka were operating a call centre from Bengaluru, under the instructions of a Chinese citizen. Recently, a 32-year-old Chinese citizen,, Wan Chenghua, was arrested by the Chandigarh Police. 20 Indians were also arrested along with him. One of them was the Indian national, Jitu Bhadana. The main person in this specific racket. Chandigarh Police shared his confession video on their Twitter handle. "When we call them, we directly tell them that. their loan repayment is due, and the amount that's due, and then we threaten them so that

they make the payment." In this video, he explains the manner in which the Chinese Loan Apps trick people and fraud them. The thing is, friends, you can find all these apps on Google Play Store. They can have any weird name. Jeetu Loan, Handy Loan,, Insta Loan, AG Loan. When you download and install these apps on your phone, they ask for your phone number to log in. Who would want to download these apps? An average person in dire need of a loan. And those who can't easily get a loan. Especially people who do not have a credit history. Housewives, students, young people, they are attracted towards these apps because these apps offer loans without any complicated processes, and interest-free loans at that. When these apps are installed on phones, they ask permission to access the contact list and photo gallery. And then you upload copies of your Aadhaar card and PAN card to get the loan, enter your bank account details, After this, in most cases, these companies actually deposit some money into the bank accounts. They lend some money. Till this point, this might seem wonderful. Getting a loan quickly and without any hassle. But the problems begin a week later. A week later, the call the borrower, and ask for loan repayment. They ask for an amount much higher than they gave as a loan. They have the borrower's phone number, they send them text messages on WhatsApp, and if the money isn't repaid, eventually, the messages turn into harassment. People are blackmailed and threatened over WhatsApp. They threaten to lodge a police complaint or FIR. But who are these people? The people employed in the call centre by these companies. Many unemployed people are hired by these call centres, to do this job. They are given a list of borrowers as 'targets' to contact them over WhatsApp, phone calls, asked to threaten them, blackmail them, and do anything they can, so that the companies can get a huge amount of money. If you still refuse to repay the loans, They start morphing your photos. They send your morphed photos to you telling you that they will publicly publish that for being a loan defaulter. They threaten to send the photos to your family, relatives, and everyone on your contact list. Remember, you had given the apps access to your contacts and photo gallery while installing them. Giving access to your photos means that they can take photos from your phone they can morph them, and in the case of female borrowers, they are morphed onto obscene photos, and used to blackmail them. "We demand an amount higher than the loan amount, and if they refuse to pay even after that, then we use the access to their gallery we make morphed pictures and send them to their contact list. So that the customer makes the payment." In the Play Store reviews of these apps, you will often find people writing such reviews who went through the same thing. For example, look at the complaint of this Google user. I hid the name for privacy, they said that their account was credited ₹3,485 as a loan one week later, the app called them, and asked for ₹6,010. Another user wrote that they were given a loan of ₹4,405. But 6 days later, the app demanded ₹8,010. They demand almost double the money. In the case of a young woman, her morphed photos were sent to her family, her cousins. In this specific case, the railway police busted this racket in July this year. Who had morphed the photos and sent them to her family? When the number was traced, it turned out to be from Karnataka of a 19-year-old unemployed youth. Obviously, the Chinese scammers weren't working themselves, rather they had employed local Indians for this. This man was a recovery agent and he earned a commission on the money repaid by the people. "I am calling from Ajit Loan, Sir. You need to repay the loan you had taken." "What kind of a message have you sent to my contact list?" "This was bound to happen if you don't repay the loan." "So you will tell everyone that I am absconding after ***ing a 15-year-old girl, so if anyone sees me they should file a police complaint and put me in jail? That you will reward whoever does this. This is what you've said, right?" "I am talking to you politely, you ****." Not only the lives of thousands of people are ruined by these scams, friends, this causes an adverse impact on the Indian economy too. Millions of rupees are being sent out of India. The victims of these scams,, are often, poor people. The Covid pandemic was a major reason that saw a huge boom in fake loan apps. After millions of people lost their jobs, they were desperate for money. But the question arises, how do we differentiate between the scam loan companies and the genuine loan companies? The simple answer to it is the RBI. All the digital lending apps in the country have to be compulsorily registered with the RBI. The lenders that are not registered with the RBI, aren't allowed to lend money. You can go check on RBI's website if the company lending you money is registered with the RBI, does the company have a registration number? Run the registration number on RBI's website to check whether it exists or not. Additionally, there are some simple things that you can pay attention to. Often these fake loan companies do not have a physical address. Check whether these companies have a physical address in India or not. Second, often these fake loan apps do not have websites. Check whether they have a website. Any genuine company giving out loans would have a website. If they do have a website, check whether it is secure. There's the symbol of a padlock on secure web pages. This shows whether the website is secure or not. The websites whose URL begins with https, are the secure websites. The URLs that begin with http, should not be trusted much. This is applicable to almost all types of websites do not trust http websites too much. Check whether the apps giving you loans is asking for your KYC, it is compulsory to fulfil the Know Your Customer norms be alert if the lender isn't doing so. Then, see if the app giving you a loan is checking your creditworthiness. Genuine lender companies check your credit score they will ask for the history of any previous loans. See if they are asking for loan processing fees, genuine lending companies do not ask for processing fees upfront. it is deducted later, after the loan application is processed. If they are asking for a loan processing fee upfront, take a step back. Check if there is a loan agreement. These fake loan apps promise you instant loans without any hassles. But genuine lenders follow RBI's fair practice code there is a proper loan agreement in which the conditions are clearly specified the rate of interest, the repayment schedule, and the penalties. Apps that tell you there's zero paperwork to get a loan is a dangerous app. Paperwork isn't for the benefit of the company only. It is for your benefit as well. If you sign a contract or an agreement, the rate of interest and the repayment dates on the contract protect your rights. If you come across such fake loan apps, not only protect yourself, save others too by reporting it to the RBI, to the Cyber cell of the police, and reporting the app to Google Play Store as well. Since we are talking about scams, another scam I'd like to tell you about is these scammers often reply to your comments, through fake accounts. They create fake accounts using the name of the YouTuber. For example, if you're commenting on my video, you will get a reply from an account that would seem like I have replied to you. Obviously, the difference here is that when I actually reply to your comments, there's a tick mark beside the name. But these fake accounts do not have a tick mark. These scammers reply to you saying "Thanks for watching, you have won the lucky giveaway massage me on Telegram to win the gift." You heard that right, friends, in this specific case, they had written 'massage' instead of 'message'. Oftentimes, these scammers aren't well-educated. By failing to notice these tiny details, people often fall victim to these. As it happened with an 8th grader. He was watching my videos, and this is what he wrote to me in an email. A scammer replied to him in the YouTube comment section asking him to message the scammer on Telegram. The scammer had created a fake Telegram account using my name. Dhruv Rathee Giveaway. The scammer tells him that he won an iPhone in a giveaway. Asking him if he wants to claim the iPhone. Of course, in his excitement, he replied that he would. The scammer told him that a delivery agent will contact him. The 'delivery agent' contacted him and asked for ₹4,000 as the delivery fee. Saying that they would deliver the iPhone to him but he would have to pay the delivery charges. It would cost him ₹4,000 for the delivery. Thankfully, the guy who emailed me was smart and did not fall into this trap. Obviously, no iPhones were being given here. It was a petty scam to get the 'delivery fees'. When I researched more about this scam, I found out that many such scams are being carried out using the names of other YouTubers and influencers. A YouTuber, SuperSaif had made a video on how such a scam was happening using his identity. A similar scam was popular last year. People were sent an SMS that their courier was out for delivery. They'd get excited about the package they'd receive. They asked people to give them their personal details and to pay a small delivery fee of ₹10-₹20. But when people put in their details, there was a virus attack on their phone and their credit card details or online banking details were stolen. Friends, beware of these things. This video is for your benefit,.

and to spread awareness, so that you do not fall for these traps. Do not give your bank details, ATM pin, or OTP. Even if someone tells you that you've won an iPhone, or the treasure of some Nigerian prince, do not believe it. Do not fall for the instant loan trap. Thank you very much!