Loan fraud hits Indiabulls' fintech arm, fraudsters use PAN numbers

Fraudsters used the permanent account numbers (PAN) of many customers to avail instant loans from an app of Dhani Loans and Services Limited, formerly known as Indiabulls Consumer Finance Limited, a non-deposit taking NBFC registered with the Reserve Bank of India and a 100 per cent subsidiary of Dhani Services Limited.

Anybody can obtain credit of upto Rs 5 lakh by applying through the app. A portion of the amount in disbursed instantly to a digital card which can be used for online transactions. A physical card can also be obtained by paying a fee and can be used at point-of-sale machines.

On Tuesday, many users took to social media to complain that their credit reports reflected loans taken by them from IVL Finance Ltd which later became Indiabulls Consumer Finance. Fraudsters used the PAN numbers of individuals for taking the loans.

One of the fraud victims said that while the credit report indicated that the loan was disbursed by IVL Finance to a particular PAN number, the mobile number and address mentioned for the purpose were incorrect.

A Dhani spokesperson said the company is talking to all the complainants and establishing if it is a case of identity theft. If that is the case then they will rectify their records in the credit bureaus immediately.

“The digital and tech ecosystems are evolving every day, and the industry has been facing individuals who try to defraud both, us companies and unsuspecting citizens. While there are many cases of fraudsters taking advantage of people who mistakenly share credentials and OTPs of their own volition, cases of identity theft are also on a steady rise. Our risk management and tech teams therefore have been on overdrive, constantly building more robust systems to try and keep such activities at a distance,” the spokesperson said.

“We have integrated with G-defence, a global security platform, to further re-verify each device against a specific customer and PAN through various data-fields. This will stop these stray incidents of identity thefts,” the spokesperson added.

Dhani Loans and Services also expanded its customer service team to 6,500 people to attend to customer problems.

“Dhani has given small transaction finance loans to over 3.5 million in the last 12 months and 99.9 per cent have gone to genuine people who have benefited from this offering. We will leave no stone unturned to mitigate any possibility of identity theft on our Fintech platform,” the spokesperson said.