Mangaluru: A second year diploma student from a paramedical college in the city took loan through a loan app for payment of college fees. Now, her picture has been allegedly morphed on nude pictures and sent to her contacts, including her father, by stating that she is a loan defaulter.

In her complaint with the Mangaluru Cyber Economic and Narcotic Crime (CEN), the student, who hails from Balya village in Kadaba taluk, in Dakshina Kannada said she needed money to immediately pay college fees in March 2023. She downloaded Auto Loan app from Google Play store on her phone and applied for loan of Rs 3,500.

The app operators, she said, credited Rs 2,800 to her bank account and asked her to return the amount with interest by July 26. The student first returned Rs 1,400 to an UPI ID related to the creditor on July 19. On July 26, she paid Rs 1,400 to another UPI ID, which was followed by payment of the last instalment of Rs 1,400 to third UPI ID related to the creditors.

On July 26, father of the victim, her family members and a few more of her contacts, including her college principal, received on their WhatsApp morphed images of the victim from the mobile number starting with country code +26 stating that she is a loan defaulter.

The student said the app operators have accessed her contacts following downloading of the app. In her complaint filed on July 27, the girl sought action against the app operators.

In a similar way, a 29-year-old fisherman from Padu Tonse village in Udupi taluk was harassed allegedly by operators of Top Loan app. In his complaint filed with Udupi CEN police station on July 12, he accused creditors of morphing his photo on nude pictures and sending them to his friends to harass him to return a loan amount of Rs 3,500.