426 ‘rogue’ lending apps currently on Play Store: Citizens’ collective

A citizen collective, engaged in raising awareness around digital payments, has released a list of 426 “rogue” lending apps available on Google PlayStore. Many of these apps, researchers say, indulge in “abusive lending practices” and seek wide-ranging intrusive permissions from users. TOI has sent a detailed questionnaire to Google about the list but the technology giant had not responded till the filing of this report.

The database, compiled by Cashless Consumers and Banbreach, includes apps that offer loans to users at extremely high interest rates and then allegedly deploy several tactics, including harassment and threats, for repayment. According to researchers who worked on the list, many of these apps are also entangled in “possibly fraudulent/illegal activities, including but not limited to money laundering, extortion”.