The Trap: India’s Deadliest Scam

An undercover investigation by the BBC has exposed a blackmail scam that is using instant loan apps to entrap and humiliate people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Promising easy money, loan app scammers collect personal data from customers’ phones and then use that information to threaten or humiliate people into repayment. The investigation has found that since 2020, in India alone, at least 60 people have killed themselves after being abused by loan apps. But how does the scam work? And who’s profiting from this abuse? BBC Eye goes undercover to take you inside the loan app scam, and to expose the people making money from misery, fear, and shame.