Hello. Sir, have you made the payment? The promise is an instant loan. Stupid woman! Stupid woman! Stupid woman! Stupid woman! The reality is a nightmare. He showed me those photographs and I blacked out. In every person's contact list, there’s at least one number that can destroy their life completely. I don't know how many nights I have gone without sleep. Across India, at least 60
people have taken their own lives after being abused and blackmailed by loan apps. I am thinking of killing mysel
f, madam. What's the point of living? BBC Eye Investigations goes undercover to reveal the scam that's plaguing India. Behave or I’ll smash you in the face *******! Your sister is a ****! Your mother is a ****! And to expose the people making money from misery, fear and shame. Basically, it's like he's naked in front of us. It is a trap, a big trap. Fake loan apps are using extortion. There’s a gang lending money through mobile apps. When the money’s not repaid, they humiliate people. Last year,
I started to hear stories about people who had borrowed money from loan apps and then found themselves trapped in a
nightmare of blackmail and abuse. My name is Poonam Agarwal. I have been an investigative reporter for 20 years. It wasn't easy to crack this story. But then I got in touch with this young guy who said he had worked inside the loan app scam. I think it's him. Hope you didn't get wet. Please don’t reveal my identity to anyone. I asked 'Rohan', not his real name, how he was involved
in the loan app business. I’ve recovered money for lots of loan apps. I didn’t know it was such a filthy business. Tell me what goes on inside? Most calls were routine, but if anyone didn’t pay on time, you could do anything to get the money back. I can’t tell you all the things they said to customers. Tell me frankly. Forget that I’m a woman. So much abuse. Send your sister for a night. If you don’t have the money,
sell your sister in a brothel. To expose the scam, I needed evidence. So I aske
d him if he would wear a
secret camera and take us inside. But Rohan didn't want to go back. This is how the trap is set. You get a message, saying you've
been approved for an instant loan. All you have to do is download the app. Accept the terms and conditions, and the money is yours. What you don't know is you're already in the trap. The app is extracting all your personal information, your ID cards, your photos and videos, the names and numbers of your family,
your colleagues, your friends. T
hat's when the extortion begins. The problem is getting worse. Three people, including a software engineer in Hyderabad and a woman agricultural officer, have killed themselves. Mumbai Police have asked Google to remove
15 fake loan apps from their Play Store. Most victims are too ashamed to talk. But one wanted to warn of the dangers of the trap. I was supposed to get a payment and it did not come, and I genuinely had to make some urgent payments. The money comes into your account within five m
inutes. Bhoomi Sinhaa didn't get all the money she borrowed. A big chunk was taken in unspecified charges and fees. When I saw the duration, it was seven days. But instead of those seven days,
he called me on the fifth day, saying that today, madam, you have to pay. The only way to pay was to take out a new loan. And when she couldn't pay that, another loan. Each loan came with new
charges and higher interest rates. Then a lady called me who said if you
do not pay immediately, we will start call
ing your contacts. For Bhoomi, the nightmare was just beginning. She moved from loan app to loan app, often getting 30 or 40 calls a day. Eventually, she paid them off. But one loan app, Asan Loan, kept calling. I was in the office. One of my colleagues, an accountant, called me and said, 'Bhoomi, come into
my office for a moment.' He said, 'This is what I got on WhatsApp.' When he showed me those photos, I blacked out. Some Asan Loan guy sent that message to him, showing me totally nude. Naked.
It was a morphed photo. Asan Loan had photoshopped Bhoomi's face
onto this porn image and then sent it to every contact on her phone. Even my father’s acquaintances
were sent those photos. They called my baby, my daughter, abused her. Sent her my nude photographs. Sent it to all my contacts. Children, who regarded me as their mother or aunt, they got my photos. I tried to take my life. I did not dare because I have a child. If I die, what would happen to my daughter? I can't. I’m getting too...
When I think about this, I can't sleep at night. I don’t know how many nights I’ve gone without sleep. Fearing the apps, one person killed
themself and their whole family. Killing themself, killing their children, killing their wife. Imagine the trauma that person must have gone through. Who was behind the attack on Bhoomi? Who would drive a mother to the edge of suicide? India has laws to prevent extortion and harassment. But it's almost impossible to track
down who's behind the loan apps. We
had heard that many of them are
owned by Chinese investors. But whoever is making the money
doesn't even have to provide a name or an address. The app just said Asan Loan. Then we got a lead, and I followed it to Pune. I had found a reference to a company called DK Sky Tech. They were listed as the developers
behind one version of the Asan Loan app. I found the building. But when I got to the office, it was abandoned. It's locked. Back in Delhi, I called Rohan, the insider. I wanted to know if h
e knew about the suicides. Yes, I knew something about it. From the start I didn’t like this recovery work, but there was so much money that I kept doing it. Then all this dirty business of
morphing photos started. I didn't want to do it anymore so I quit. Did you feel guilty at any point? Yes, I did feel guilty. You’re defrauding someone who is
borrowing 2,000 rupees ($24; £19). They’re already poor and you are making them poorer. When customers used to cry,
it would haunt me all night. I came
across many troubled people, but over the last couple of years,
the suicides have increased. A lot of people say they’ll take their own lives when they can’t pay. So they really frighten people? It’s not fear. It’s shame. In India, shame is very effective. I asked Rohan again if he would help me get inside a call centre that was causing this misery. This time, he agreed. It's Rohan's first day undercover and he's nervous he could be busted. I was very scared. What if someone recognised me? I fel
t like I was wearing a bomb on my chest. Rohan's going inside Majesty Legal. This Delhi-based company doesn't give out loans. It calls borrowers on behalf of
the loan apps to chase payments. Most calls are polite. Sir, have you made the payment? Sir, have you made your payment? But if you don't pay on time, things start to get nasty. You are not worth a single rupee
and you are blabbering. I'm going to get your mother on this call now.
Watch out! I'm sending the boys over to your house. He needs
thrashing. It was difficult working in a call centre again. So much abuse, so many terrible things being done. Sit on the road and beg, if you're so worthless you can't pay. Beggar! You ******* thief! You idiot! Rohan had gathered crucial evidence of abuse, but some of his colleagues were getting suspicious. My team leader suddenly grabbed my shirt and pulled it. I thought the camera would fall out. It was frightening. My heart was pounding.
I started sweating. I didn't want to go back. It wasn
't safe to send Rohan back into Majesty Legal. But now, he told me about another call centre,
a place in Noida, where the abuse was said to be even worse. They were recruiting agents, and Rohan applied for a job. I hadn't given up on looking for the man
behind the loan app that harassed Bhoomi to the brink of suicide. DK Sky Tech, the company behind the
closed door in Pune, had a listing in the corporate register. There, at last, I found a name for the man
running Asan Loan. Parshuram Takve Takv
e had a Facebook page and a Chinese wife named Liang Tian Tian. He also had a criminal record. Takve had been running debt recovery
for multiple loan apps. Complaints had piled up, extortion, blackmail,
the use of obscene images. In December 2020, he had been arrested
and released on bail. The Facebook account was locked
and the man had vanished. But in Pune, I found someone
who used to work for Parshuram Takve. Parshuram would manage the entire team. We heard him abusing people, using bad langu
age. He would tell us, 'If I am doing it, why are you afraid?' 'I have abused people for this app.' Takve was running recovery for many loan apps. The Asan Loan app was on a separate floor. They set up [WhatsApp] groups to
recover money and they abused people. They didn't give any time to the customers. Customer used to tell us,
'If you carry on like this, I will kill myself.' We thought, 'What on earth is happening?' Even so, they told us to carry on with the recovery. And then the worst happen
ed. Customers began taking their own lives. The suicide cases increased so much they had
to stop their entire operation in the south. Was he aware these suicides happened after
the harassment from his call centre? Yes. He was aware because he was watching the news. He assembled all the people on the floor and said aggressively, 'Why are you worried?' 'It is my company. If I am not worrying,
why are you worried?' 'Do what you are told and do the recovery.
I will handle the rest.' 'Don't worry abo
ut the police.' We know of at least three people who killed themselves after being shamed by Takve's recovery agents. They aren't just numbers. They all had a name, a family and a future. In Telangana, I found the parents of one of them, a 24-year-old woman called Mounika. My daughter, she was very respectful. She was a really polite and sensitive person. Just like me, she always wanted to help people and not cause harm to others. After struggling for 36 hours in hospital, Mounika passed away. L
ater, we found out from people who had received messages from the loan apps, that she was under immense mental pressure
because of the apps. She was the only daughter of our four children. We were always so close. It was a perfect mother-daughter relationship. I can't forget her. I am struggling to accept that my daughter is no more. Two cases have surfaced that are serious. In one, a person killed himself. After being trapped by Chinese loan apps, a beautiful family was destroyed. I had heard m
any stories about
young people like Mounika, who had taken their own lives
after being threatened by loan apps. But while I was in Pune, I heard
about a girl accused of murder. When my sister and her husband heard about the incident, they felt sick and had to go to hospital. They were absolutely shocked. Sunil says his daughter, Gauri, murdered
her grandmother as she lay in her bed, to steal her jewellery to pay a loan app. A recovery agent had threatened to send a message to all her contacts. M
y mother was old, she was 70. She was sick. She had breathing and kidney problems. She struggled to eat, maybe half a roti. Mother was resting, she asked Gauri
to put medicine in her eyes. Gauri gave her the medicine and then killed her. She was so old, she would have barely made any noise. Gauri suffocated her with a pillow. I think that killed my mother. I think she wasn't sure if my mother was alive or dead. She wasn't sure. So she probably carried on. Gauri thrust the screwdriver in here, in
the head. She wanted to make it look as if thieves broke in and my mother resisted, so they assaulted her. I can't sleep. I'm all alone in this house. I'm terrified. I've lost my mother. I've lost my daughter. I am scared. How will I live? I am thinking of taking my own life, madam. What's the point of living? Why should I Iive? Gauri denies murdering her grandmother. Her lawyer, Yashpal Purohit, says little is proven. But he confirms Gauri had borrowed
from several loan apps and they were hara
ssing her more and more in the days before her grandmother was killed. They sent a screenshot to her phone, saying that we have copied your contact list. They did threaten her that they’ll morph her photos. So obviously this is something which is very serious. A government investigation has found
that 600 of these are fake apps. Can't the Government, the RBI, the Ministry of Home Affairs and other agencies make an action plan together? I was back in Delhi, but I couldn't forget Sunil's story. Sh
ame. Suicide. Murder. Was there no limit to the misery
the loan apps would inflict? It made me even more determined to expose the people profiting from the trap. Then I got a call from Rohan. He had been accepted for the job
at the call centre in Noida. This is the Callflex Corporation, a call centre that recovers money for loan apps,
including one called PaySense. Sir, I am calling from the PaySense company. Most calls are respectful. Sir, I am calling from PaySense.
Why haven't you made the pa
yment yet? But, just like in the first call centre, if you fail to pay,
the tone changes. I need your payment before closing, sir. Otherwise, I will make your life hell on the 1st and 2nd.
Remember this, sir. Sell your house, sell your jewellery,
sell your bike, but I need the money. I can only stop the abuse when you
make the payment to me, sir. If you still don't pay, the threats begin. Do you think that we just have your number?
We know everything about you. Every single detail. I have confir
med the address with you.
We’re coming. OK? Rohan's new colleagues were brazen
about the tactics they used. You can't even imagine how badly we abuse people. Blood comes out of their ears. Tell them two or three times and if they don’t listen, we attack, all guns blazing. Nothing is out of bounds. You can use any kind of abuse. I am not ashamed at all. In our profession, abuse is ******* standard! After three weeks filming secretly
inside the call centre, Rohan met me in a park. Hello. Did you f
ind out how they get
the customers' contacts? They can pull out all the contacts and then the agents are told to abuse them. They can do anything to get the money out of customers. So are these agents going rogue or
are they given instructions? They follow the managers' instructions. They’re trained how to abuse, how to harass,
how to make a call. So who gives them these instructions? Management. There’s a manager called Vishal Chaurasia. He does the training. You want to meet him? So Rohan arra
nged a meeting with a manager. He went with another undercover reporter,
posing as an investor. They asked Vishal Chaurasia to explain
exactly how loan recovery works. When a customer takes a loan, his entire contact list from his mobile
goes to the company. His mum, dad, brother, sister-in-law,
niece, sweetheart, wife. Everyone's number is there. When the customer crosses the line, then we call his references. OK, you mean you call their parents? Panic. OK. The customer then pays because of the
shame. You can say anything. Just make sure the customer doesn't record the call. Mostly calls are made on WhatsApp. WhatsApp can't be recorded. When his father is abused, it will make him pay. Abuse was effective. But even more powerful, was shame. You'll find at least one person in his contact list who can destroy his life. In every person's contact list,
there's at least one number that can destroy their life completely. The manager had distilled the scam to its essence, call centres recover
money for loan apps
by threatening to destroy people's lives. We had gathered enough evidence and I was ready to get Rohan out. But he told me that as the month end approached, and the agents raced to hit their targets, the abuse was about to escalate. So I asked him to go back inside the call centre. Behave or I will break your face! Your mother is a ****! Your sister is a ****! I will **** your **** in a way you’ll
remember for the rest of your life! Aren't you ashamed? **** off *******! Hang
up *******! He hung up! Are you wearing bangles on your wrist, you *****? Listen ****! are you are wearing bangles on your wrist? You got your mother ******!
Yes. That’s how you got the loan. Do you know that? Send your mother here and we’ll cancel the loan. You ************! You ****** your mother! Give us your mother. You took a loan of 52,000 rupees ($632; £494). Your mother has been ****** 52,000 times! India is now one of the largest and
successful fintech markets in the world. We've seen
the digital payments revolution and now
digital lending is taking centre stage. In fact, digital lenders may capture nearly
half of the total lending market and disburse loans worth $350bn (£274bn) by 2023. Digital lending is big business in India and some big players have entered the market. One of India's leading fintech companies has made former Indian cricket captain, MS Dhoni,
its brand ambassador. Hello sir, how may I help you? I need a loan. No problem, sir. Your salary slip, bank stateme
nt, and then verification is required, sir. Hey! I need it now! After 3 bank holidays and in 4 working days. money will be credited to your bank account. Navi wants to show how it is different from other apps. Hey! Need a loan? On your time? On your conditions? Download the Navi app. In Mumbai, I met a man who had
borrowed money from Navi. The founder of Navi is Sachin Bansal, who was the founder of Flipkart. We heard a lot that he will compete with Amazon. And our data will be safe there. That’
s why I chose Navi. When 'Vikram', not his real name, failed to pay on time, he saw a different side of Navi. The abuse started from day one. Where are you? Share your location. We will come to your house. My relatives started getting calls. They called my dad. They called my uncle. Even my friends were called. When these things happened, I started crying. It got to such a stage that I felt that ending my life would be
better than all this torture. Eventually, he paid Navi back. But before he di
d so, he decided to record some of the calls. Listen to the language and their attitude. You don't want to pay up? No problem. If you don't pay on time, we’re calling
all your family and contacts. On another call, Vikram tried to establish
exactly who was behind the abuse. At first, the agents denied they were calling from Navi, but later the story changed. What is your name? My name is *****. OK. Ma'am, are you calling from Navi? Yes. OK, you are calling from Navi Finance? Yes, from Navi Financ
e. Navi told us one of their agent threatened Vikram and received a warning, while another used abusive language and was sacked. The company apologised to Vikram. Breaking news coming in, when it comes to the crackdown
on Chinese loan apps. That's our top focus on the bulletin. Hyderabad City Police has
busted an online loan app scam. The Indian authorities were starting to
crack down on the loan apps. In April 2022, Parshuram Takve and his
Chinese wife were charged with extortion, intimidation
and abetment of suicide. By the end of the year, they were on the run. This is Takve's home village. Takve was nowhere to be found. But at his family home, his mother, who had done nothing wrong, agreed to talk. My son should go to the police,
tell the truth and come back home. My son didn’t earn anything. No money, no bungalow, no cars, nothing. That woman made the money and took it all away. The mother blamed everything on Liang Tian Tian,
Parshuram's Chinese wife. Get her from anywhere, just
bring her in front of me. I will slap her. She took away my son. I will slap her hard. I’ll slap her in front of you. Do anything, just give me back my son. I told the mother about Bhoomi, the woman who had been
shamed with photoshopped porn, and driven to the edge of suicide by Takve's company. She agreed to talk to Bhoomi. My son hasn't done anything. Dirty pictures of me have been sent to all my family. Those pictures have also been sent
to my daughter and her friends. You listen to me, you c
atch that Chinese woman. That woman from China, catch her.
She is the one you took the loan from. She scammed my son as well. If this happened to your daughter, would you forgive them? No. If your son didn't do anything, why is he on the run? What? Why doesn't he come forward? No. No. My son hasn't done these dirty things. Where am I going to find him? That's it. You don't want to talk? My head is hurting. The mother was right about one thing,
the scam is bigger than Takve. Behind him, there's a
whole web of companies. Parshuram Takve was the director of four businesses. His Chinese wife, Liang Tian Tian,
gave her name to the largest, Jiyaliang, which recovered money for predatory loan apps. Some of those loan apps were set up or supported
by two Chinese-owned companies. Behind both of them was a mysterious
businessman called Li Xiang. Li Xiang kept himself well hidden. We found nothing online, no social
media accounts and no photos. But the money trail led to one city, Hong Kong. Here
, we found a phone number
linked to one of his employees. Posing as investors, we asked if he could
set up a meeting with Li Xiang. Hello. Hi. Hello. Li Xiang was quick to tell us about his fintech and loan app businesses in India. We are still operating now, just not letting Indians know
we are a Chinese company. We are currently one of the top three
players in the industry in India. What we are currently doing is
not particularly compliant with regulations worldwide. You need to understand tha
t because we aim
to recover our investment quickly, we certainly don't pay local taxes and
the interest rates we offer violate local laws. Then Li Xiang made the key admission, his companies, controlled from Hong Kong,
harvest Indians' contacts and exploit them to recover loans. Their recovery plan is precise. If you don't repay, we may add you
on WhatsApp, and on the third day, we will call and message you on WhatsApp
at the same time, and call your contacts. Then, on the fourth day, if your co
ntacts don't pay,
we have specific detailed procedures. We access his call records and capture
a lot of his information. Basically, it's like he's naked in front of us. We know everything about him. Finally, we had a face for Li Xiang and evidence that he was profiting
from the misery of ordinary people. Parshuram Takve used extortion, intimidation, and fear
in order to recover money. At least some of that money ended up
in the accounts of this man. Rohan, the insider, had helped expose
how this
industry really works. He had also faced up to his own past. I have left my old world behind. I was struggling to let things go. Now, I have finally moved on. Yes, I’ve definitely done some bad things. I have shouted at people,
threatened and intimidated them. But at least I’ve done something good in my life now. If people remember me, I hope they remember me for this. When I started this investigation, I never imagined the misery I would find. At least 60 Indians, many of them
very young, have
killed themselves after being blackmailed and shamed by the loan apps. It was heartbreaking. But despite the suffering, the scam continues. A year after Parshuram Takve went on the run, his app, Asan Loan, is still trading, still abusing,
still destroying lives. In Mumbai, though, Bhoomi was starting to rebuild hers. My regret is that I shouldn't have taken the loan. But, if there wasn't an emergency, I wouldn't have taken it. I must have done something good to have
been given a daughter like t
his. She's my friend and sometimes she even becomes my mother. At times, she is my biggest enemy! But she is my lifeline. If I am alive today, I think it is because of my daughter. If she hadn't stood by me then, I would have been one of the many people who've killed
themselves because of loan apps.
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