The messages are unbearable and you want to block everyone right now. What comes first?

Screenshot everything, then block

Block first and reconstruct it later from memory

Reply once, asking them in writing to stop

The part you cannot face is your family finding out. What does the lesson say about telling them yourself?

It ends the pressure fastest, because being seen is the only thing being sold

Hold it back for as long as you possibly can

Tell them only once the police have finished

Lesson 2 of 2 · 7 min

What recovery may not do, and where to go

Harassment, threats and morphed images are crimes being committed against you — not debts you have to pay off to make them stop. Here is where to take them.

RBI’s digital lending rules require a regulated entity behind every lending app, clear disclosure of all charges, and recovery conducted within specified bounds. Threats, public shaming, contacting your phonebook and morphing your photographs are outside all of them, and several are criminal offences.

If it is happening

Do	Do not
Screenshot everything before blocking anyone	Do not delete the app before saving evidence
File at cybercrime.gov.in and with local police	Do not pay to have images removed — it does not stop
Tell your family yourself, first	Do not face it alone; isolation is what the pressure relies on
Complain to RBI’s CMS portal if a regulated lender is involved	Do not take a second loan to repay the first

But I did borrow the money — do I not owe it?

KabirTara

Kabirasking
Part of me thinks I brought this on myself. I did take the loan. However bad the calls get, is this not just a debt I am supposed to pay?
Taraexplaining
Two different things have been welded together in your head. What you borrowed is one question. Threatening you and ringing your phonebook is a second one, and that second one is a crime whoever owes what.
Kabirasking
They say I agreed to all of it in the terms.
Taraexplaining
You agreed to a screen. Nothing on that screen permits what is being done to you now, and a great deal of what these apps demand was never lawfully owed. That is a matter for the police, not for you alone at midnight.
Kabirasking
And telling my family? That is the part I cannot do.
Taraexplaining
It is also the part that ends it fastest. They are going to be rung anyway — the entire design assumes you would rather pay than be seen. Saying it yourself, first, removes the only thing being sold.

Just for you

Check your phone now. Which apps have access to your contacts, and which of them could possibly need it?

This stays in your browser and is never sent anywhere — not to us, not to anyone. It disappears when you leave the page.

Check yourself

1 / 3

Kabir asks

Agents are threatening you and messaging your colleagues. You did take the loan. How do those two facts relate?

Done reading?

Saved in this browser — and finishes the course.