What is the danger posed by lending apps?

What is the danger posed by lending apps?

Over the past three years, several police complaints have been received of extortion and harassment from people who borrowed small amounts through such money-lending apps, often at exorbitantly high interest rates.

In December 2020, DNM Santosh Kumar, a native of Visakhapatnam, died by suicide allegedly after facing harassment by lending apps. Similarly, the Cyber Police Station of Pune received 699 complaints of loan app crimes in 2020. The number increased to 928 in 2021. As many as 3,151 complaints were filed against the loan app operatives till August 2022.

Following this, the MHA started investigating Chinese loan-lending apps and found out that while only 94 are available on e-stores, others are operating through third-party links or websites.