Loan App Harassment — Advocate at Asansol Court

The RBI's Guidelines on Digital Lending, 2022 require every regulated entity to disclose the name of the lender, the recovery agent and the grievance officer, and to publish these details on its website and inside the app. No app may store or use your contacts, photo gallery or files, and no recovery agent may use criminal means. Recovery calls must be limited to the borrower between eight in the morning and seven in the evening, and nobody may threaten or shame a defaulting customer. An Asansol borrower whose contacts were harvested has already suffered a privacy breach the guidelines expressly prohibit.

A genuine regulated lender also cannot demand a processing fee before disbursal, cannot auto-increase the loan beyond the agreed amount, and must provide a cooling-off period during which you may repay the principal without penalty. If the app you installed hides its company name, refuses to name the lender, or demands access to your photo gallery and contacts, it is almost certainly an unauthorised digital lending app. The RBI keeps a public list of such unauthorised entities, and you may report one to it free of cost.

Harassment, morphed photographs and threats are criminal offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Criminal intimidation is punishable, extortion is punishable, and publishing obscene or sexually explicit material is punishable under the Information Technology Act. File a written complaint at the cyber crime police station for Paschim Bardhaman or the nearest Asansol police station. Carry screenshots of the calls and messages, any call recordings, the loan app name, and the UPI or bank details shown inside the app, so the police can act on specifics rather than vague allegations.

Under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which replaced the Criminal Procedure Code, a zero FIR can be registered even if the police station is not the correct one, and it must then be transferred to the right police station. You may also file online at the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, cybercrime.gov.in. Attach the abusive messages and a list of every person who received your morphed photograph, so that the police can see the true scale of the harm caused to your reputation.

The Reserve Bank runs Sachet, a portal where any person can report an unauthorised deposit-taking or lending scheme in which they have been involved. A complaint naming the app, its website and the bank account into which you paid helps the RBI and the police identify the operators behind it. While Sachet does not by itself recover individual losses, it triggers regulatory action and can lead to the collection network being frozen. Asansol borrowers should file on Sachet even after the police complaint, because the two systems serve different purposes.

If a regulated bank or non-banking finance company is behind the app, you can also approach the RBI's grievance mechanism and the lender's own nodal grievance officer, whose details must be published. Keep the complaint reference numbers of each report you file, whether with the police, Sachet or the bank. These records prove later, in any proceeding, that you treated the recovery as unlawful from the very beginning and that you acted promptly rather than quietly acquiescing to the demands.

Payments made under threat are not voluntary. Where you were forced to pay by threats of defamation, publication or physical harm, the money may be recoverable. Because the recipients usually sit behind shell accounts, the practical route is through the police complaint and, where the money moved by UPI or bank transfer, by informing your bank in writing to flag those transactions as fraudulent. Act quickly, because disputed transfers are far easier to trace and freeze before the funds are withdrawn and layered through other accounts.

You can also sue for damages for mental harassment and for the unauthorised use of your personal data, which is protected under the Information Technology Act and the digital lending rules. A civil claim in the Asansol court, supported by the criminal complaint and your screenshots, seeks compensation for the harm done to your reputation and peace of mind. Even if the app operator is not immediately traceable, a decree becomes useful if the accused is later arrested or identified by the police.

The moment you send a written complaint, put the recovery agents on notice that further contact will be treated as a fresh offence. Do not engage in arguments on the telephone. Do not share fresh details, do not install any settlement app offered by a caller, and do not send money to any personal account. Change your banking passwords, remove the app's access to your contacts, and inform your bank and the telecom operator. If you already uninstalled the app, that is fine, but preserve the screenshots you took first.

Ask the police to direct the telephone and internet service providers to trace the numbers used for the calls, since records are retained only for a limited time. If the calls continue after the complaint, report each one separately, because repeated intimidation strengthens the case and shows that the conduct is deliberate. For support with drafting the complaint and pursuing the claim, an Asansol lawyer can handle both the criminal case and the compensation claim together in an organised manner.