Bengaluru: Housewife blackmailed with morphed photos after downloading loan app

Bengaluru: A 29-year-old housewife from eastern Bengaluru was blackmailed by criminals using morphed photographs after she downloaded an online loan app.

The woman said the suspects were demanding a 20 per cent interest rate on the loan.

Mary (name changed) filed a complaint on July 29, stating that she had downloaded an app called 'Credit Guru' on July 22, after receiving a download link from an unknown person who claimed to offer online loans. This app had previously been flagged for similar fraudulent activities.

The perpetrator requested her Aadhaar, PAN card and bank details, which Mary unwittingly sent to three different phone numbers with country codes from Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Initially, she was told that the loan would carry a minimal 2 per cent interest rate. However, after she shared her documentation, she was informed that the interest rate had increased to 20 per cent, leading her to decline the offer.

"Without my knowledge, amounts of Rs 2,400, Rs 3,000 and Rs 3,250 were credited to my account," Mary alleged. "The person then demanded I send Rs 5,000, Rs 7,000 and Rs 5,000, which included the interest."

To intimidate her further, Mary was sent morphed explicit photographs of herself via WhatsApp.

"The person threatened to send these photos to my family if I didn’t pay up. Scared, I transferred Rs 14,500 in multiple transactions," Mary lamented.

Continued harassment

The harassment didn’t end there.

On July 28, another Rs 5,000 was wired to her bank account. "The person then demanded I send Rs 10,000," Mary stated.

She then approached the cybercrime police, who registered a case under sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation using a computer resource), 67A (publishing or transmitting sexually explicit material in electronic form), and 72A (disclosure of information in breach of lawful contract) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, along with Section 318(4) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). An investigation is underway.

Police caution

Senior officers have cautioned the public against downloading apps from unknown links and seeking online loans from suspicious and unauthorised lenders.

"Once personal details are entered into the app, it's enough," a police officer told DH. "Since these operators are illegal, they don't care if someone actually applied for a loan or not. By that point, they already have all the data from the phone."