Loan sharks are now using morphed videos and photographs of their earlier victims to intimidate and convince new victims to pay loan amounts. This new modus-operandi of the loan recovery agents came to light after they had sent a morphed video containing an image of one of their previous victims to a 22-year-old Govandi based housewife.
The woman had taken a small amount of loan from a mobile loan app and was unable to repay it. After having been harassed she lodged a police complaint on Tuesday.
According to the Shivaji Nagar police, the complainant's husband works with a driver with a cab aggregator company. On May 25, the victim came across a mobile loan app while surfing the internet. Since the victim was in need of money, she downloaded the said app. The victim shared her selfie photograph, identity card details and bank account details on the app and got Rs 3000 in loan after requesting an amount of Rs 5,000.
From June 2 onwards, the victim started receiving messages on her WhatsApp asking her to repay the loan money. After some time, the victim received a message containing an obscene photograph and video of a man, who had not repaid the loan amount.
The message also stated that if the victim failed to pay the money, then a similar video and photograph of her would be made and would be sent to those in her contact list, the victim had stated in her complaint.
Later, the victim received another message which contained her photograph with a comment that the victim had not repaid her loan and had gone into hiding. "The said message also contained her relatives' numbers and messages. The victim later received a morphed obscene photograph of her on her WhatsApp. The victim had later learnt from one of her friends that she had received a message containing the victim's obscene photograph," police said.
The victim then approached the police and got a criminal complaint lodged in the matter. The police have registered a case on charges of intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace, criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication and punishment for publishing or transmitting material containing the sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form.
"This is a new modus-operandi we have come across wherein the loan agents have shared a morphed photograph of a previous victim with the new target to intimidate her," said a police officer.
