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Your credit is easier to steal than your money: How online lending works

A simple 'Buy now, pay later' click can trigger a full loan without consent. Weak verification, no alerts, and instant disbursals are fuelling identity fraud in India's digital lending ecosystem

scam, fraud, spam call
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Money moving through the banking system must be traceable to its final recipient and recoverable quickly.

Harsh Roongta

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“I just received a message about a loan being sanctioned to me by a private bank. I never applied for any loan.” That’s how our client, Abhishek Ghate, began our call. His credit report showed that the bank had accessed his record and approved a loan in his name. The issue began with what he thought was a simple ‘Buy now, pay later’ limit check on a shopping site. The consent screen didn’t show that it was a loan application. The OTP (one-time password) he entered turned out to be an Aadhaar e-sign for a loan agreement. Luckily, the loan
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