Citizens warned of digital loan sharks lurking around

ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has warned the general public about unregistered and fraudulent lenders operating through mobile applications.

An inquiry initiated by the CCP over the subject has shown that such apps constantly change their premises and whereabouts as well as the undertakings behind such operations.

However, the CCP said it is necessary to alert the public about the issues identified and ways to avoid them until the probe is underway.

“To avoid falling prey to such activities, it is important for the public to be aware that there have been instances where recovery agents have given their personal account details instead of the lender’s valid account,” the CCP said. As a result, the payments were not adjusted against the repayment and caused further inconvenience to borrowers, it added.

These applications, available on Google PlayStore and AppStore, offer short-term micro-credits to borrowers but are currently facing numerous complaints and challenges in their track-and-trace process. Most of these applications operate without complying with Pakistan’s regulatory framework.

“The consumers need to be careful and only make payments on the registered accounts of online micro-credit and nano-loan facilities,” the CCP said, adding that it is imperative to ensure that the applications from which consumers are borrowing are operating under a regulatory regime as the trend of online micro-credit and nano-loan facilities is on the rise.

As per the initial findings, these applications have well over 10 million downloads by the general public, mostly vulnerable consumers, belonging to the lower to middle-income class. The CCP also revealed that these applications may tend to take complete control of the user’s device by requiring the user to agree to standard access permissions for the app, which would then breach users’ privacy as well as make the user vulnerable to those running the app.

Therefore, the CCP emphasised exercising caution and carefully reading the displayed terms and conditions to take an informed decision.

It also noted that recovery agents have reportedly been known to harass and abuse borrowers and their contacts for the sake of repayment.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2023

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