A LOAN DEFAULT DOES NOT TAKE AWAY A PERSON’S RIGHT TO LIFE, DIGNITY AND PRIVACY. Threats, public humiliation, abusive calls, contacting relatives or employers to shame borrowers, and threatening to circulate photographs are unacceptable methods of debt recovery. A banking licence or NBFC registration is permission to conduct financial business but it is not a permission to intimidate people. Outsourcing recovery does not remove the lender’s responsibility. @RBI @FinMinIndia @DFS_India @GoI_MeitY @Cyberdost @GoogleIndia @dir_ed @pmo I demand urgent, coordinated action: 1. Remove illegal and abusive lending apps. Authorities must urgently audit digital lending platforms and require Google Play and other app stores to immediately suspend or remove unauthorised, impersonating, data-stealing and otherwise non-compliant loan apps, following the applicable legal process. Preserve their records and developer identities for investigation. Prevent the same operators from returning under new names. 2. Investigate the lender behind every app. Verify RBI registration, platform partnerships, actual beneficial ownership, sources of funds, repayment accounts and overseas transactions. Where evidence indicates violations, initiate proceedings under the applicable financial, criminal and foreign-exchange laws. 3. Enforce strict recovery standards across ALL banks and NBFCs. This must include large lenders such as Bajaj Finance and Shriram Finance. Complaints against their recovery personnel must receive the same independent scrutiny as complaints against smaller app lenders. Every allegation must be investigated on evidence, irrespective of the institution’s size or reputation. 4. Stop harassment immediately. RBI’s recovery safeguards prohibit intimidation, public humiliation, threatening or anonymous calls and persistent calling. For covered overdue-loan recovery, calls before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. are prohibited. Calling within permitted hours does not make abusive conduct lawful. 5. Make accountability real. Require identifiable agents, verifiable authorisation, preserved call recordings, effective supervision and prompt disciplinary action. Investigate the role of managers and agencies where evidence shows that they directed, encouraged or knowingly permitted abuse. 6. Break the debt trap. Enforce clear disclosure of the annual percentage rate, deductions, repayment obligations and penalties. Investigate concealed charges and repeated refinancing. Introduce effective limits on total borrowing costs and accessible, affordable repayment arrangements for borrowers facing genuine hardship. 7. Investigate every death allegedly linked to coercive recovery. Preserve messages, recordings, payment trails and agency instructions. Determine individual and institutional responsibility through an independent investigation, and prosecute wherever the evidence establishes an offence. IF YOU ARE FACING HARASSMENT: 1. Preserve screenshots, recordings, loan documents, bank entries, telephone numbers and payment demands. Do not delete evidence. 2. Complain in writing to both the actual lender and the app/platform. Demand that harassment stop, the recovery agency be identified and your account statement be supplied. 3. Report threats, blackmail, morphed images and cybercrime immediately at cybercrime.gov.in/ and to the police. For financial cyberfraud, call 1930 promptly. You do not have to wait 30 days to report a crime. 4. Escalate eligible complaints at cms.rbi.org.in/ after an unsatisfactory lender response, or no response within 30 days, subject to the applicable complaint rules. 5. Verify repayment instructions with the lender. Never transfer money to an agent’s personal account merely because you are threatened. 6. Seek a written repayment arrangement. Avoid taking another costly app loan simply to silence a collector. Filing a complaint does not itself cancel a valid debt. To every distressed borrower: financial difficulty is not a loss of dignity. Tell someone you trust, seek support and pursue legal protection. Your life matters far more than any loan. Enforce lawful recovery. Stop financial intimidation. Protect lives. V. Ravikrishna Advocate #StopLoanHarassment #BorrowerRights #ResponsibleLending #DigitalLending #FinancialConsumerProtection