Google on Thursday pulled the plug on some personal loan apps from Play Store in India and said it was implementing more effective measures to prevent abuse following reports that said several firms were targeting vulnerable borrowers in the country and then going to extreme lengths to recover their money.
The Mountain View-based company said users and government agencies in India recently flagged several personal loan apps and the company reviewed hundreds of them. The review found that several apps violated the Play Store’s safety policies and they were immediately removed from the Store.
“Apps that fail to do so will be removed without further notice. In addition, we will continue to assist the law enforcement agencies in their investigation of this issue,” the company said.
Users have identified several lending apps including 10MinuteLoan and Ex-Money in India in recent months that granted small-amount loans to people for short tenures without much verification and then charged heavy processing fees.
Online loan horror :
— Prashanth Rangaswamy (@itisprashanth) November 8, 2020
Representative of a loan app called " Udhaar Loan " Asking a girl from Tamilnadu to video call her naked , if she fails to pay loan on time .
She attempted suicide today.
Please share max until it reaches @PMOIndia . pic.twitter.com/nD9evsGrhl
To avoid such exploitation, Google said Play Store will only allow personal apps that require customers to make their repayment in 60 days or longer.
When borrowers failed to repay their debt in a short period, collection agents on behalf of some lending apps among other hostile tactics threatened to embarrass them in front of their friends, colleagues, and family. In November, Indian Express reported that a 23-year-old man died by suicide after being bullied by a money lending app.
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