Loan-app threats and harassment

You took a small loan from an instant-loan app, and recovery agents are now calling your contacts, sending morphed photos, or abusing you.

Call 1930 nowFile a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in

Do this now

  1. Step 1.

    Within 10 minutes

    In your phone settings, revoke that app's access to contacts, gallery, SMS and location, then uninstall it. Revoking access stops further harvesting.

  2. Step 2.

    Within 5 minutes

    Call 1930 right now. It is the national cyber-crime helpline and runs 24 hours. The sooner the complaint is on record, the better the chance the bank can freeze the money — the first hour matters most.

    Call 1930
  3. Step 3.

    Within 30 minutes

    Screenshot the threatening calls and messages, then block the numbers. Repeat for each new number — they rotate constantly.

  4. Step 4.

    Within the first hour

    Warn your close contacts that they may get such calls. Shame is the actual collection tool, and telling people first disarms it.

  5. Step 5.

    Within the first hour

    File the written complaint at cybercrime.gov.in and save the acknowledgement number. The phone complaint lands on the same portal, but only you can add the written account and the documents.

    File at cybercrime.gov.in
  6. Step 6.

    Within 24 hours

    If the app is tied to an RBI-registered NBFC, complain to the RBI's Sachet portal and the Ombudsman as well. Owing the loan and being harassed illegally are two separate things.

  7. Step 7.

    Within 24 hours

    Go to the nearest police station or cyber cell, give a written complaint and take the acknowledgement. A cyber-crime FIR can be registered at any police station — you cannot be turned away on the ground that it is not their jurisdiction.

Do not do this

  • Do not keep paying out of fear. People who blackmail do not stop when the amount is cleared.
  • Do not delete the chat, call log, email or messages — not even out of anger. That is your evidence, and it does not come back.
  • Do not respond with anger or threats of your own — your messages go on the record too.
  • Do not install a second app to repay the first. That is the loop that is hardest to leave.

Preserve this evidence

  • Screenshot every screen with the date and time visible — the chat, the payment screen, the email, the profile.
  • The app name, its store link, the company or NBFC named inside the app, and a copy of the loan agreement.
  • Any call recording you have, plus a screenshot of the call log showing the number and duration.
  • The sender's phone number, UPI ID, email address, WhatsApp profile, and the link to any social-media account they contacted you from.
  • The UTR or reference number of every transaction, the amount, the time, and the full details of the account or UPI ID the money went to.
  • Leave the original messages, mails and files exactly where they are — the original counts as evidence alongside the screenshot. Delete nothing.

Similar cases

  • Loan-app harassment

    Loan app harassment: a small loan and a big threat

    This is a composite illustration built from many similar complaints, not the record of one real case; the amount only shows the typical order of magnitude, while the method, the warning signs and the sections cited are real. The single most important point is never to grant an app access to your contact list, gallery or SMS — that permission is what later becomes the weapon. The threats and public shaming used for 'recovery' are themselves a crime, and such illegal lenders can also be reported on the RBI Sachet portal (sachet.rbi.org.in).

    Amount lost
    ₹25,000
    Not recovered

National helplines

State cyber cells

Start over

This is educational information, not legal advice. For anything serious, speak to an advocate.