Instant Trap of Unsecured Loans

Don’t get tricked by fast-money scam. For a week’s loan of ₹1,000, you may have to repay ₹1,150, or an annual interest of 780 per cent. And if you fail, harassment and humiliation await your family, friends, and colleagues

- Vishav

This could be your story or mine. You will surely recognise autobiographical elements here in this dark fable unless you’re a tycoon who knows how to profit offtragedy. Name, age, family, job… yes, job loss, life tightening around you like an invisible noose. You could have been Exhibit A in this grimy drama: his name is P Sunil, a suitably Everyman name. A 28-year-old software engineer from Hyderabad, Sunil lost his job during last year’s lockdown. Salary down to zero, his financial life was tossed into an abyss he had scarcely imagined possible a few years ago.

That’s when Sunil came across digital lending apps. Instant, unsecured loans with just a few clicks on his mobile phone. He was savvy enough to know hidden risks could lurk here, but he was up for it. He was in a far worse spot anyway, an airless dungeon, and this appeared to him like an oxygen dispenser would appear to someone choking on post-COVID lung fibrosis…which is where he was, metaphorically speaking.

So he clicked, and clicked again. Sundry instant loan apps sprang into action, drafting Sunil in as the latest name and number on their database. He was gambling—with the hope and intention that he would soon land a job and pay all this money back. But the ancient laws of borrowing risks are written by unforgiving gods. Sunil’s job resume stayed blank. His dues began to balloon with the interest, accumulating like pus.

Soon, the gates of hell opened. Recovery agents stood there. Harassing calls and messages started coming not only to him but flowed to people on his contact list. Shame and humiliation were piled on to misery. In December, Sunil crumbled. What flowed next on his social network was news of his suicide.