Finance Ministry and Google collaborate to eliminate more than 4,700 fraudulent loan applications from Play Store
Speaking on the spread of illegal loan apps, Finance Minister Bhagwat Karad told the Rajya Sabha that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in collaboration with Google has successfully removed 4,700 fraudulent apps from the Play Store in the last 2.5 years, while the RBI shared a list of over 400 such apps with MeitY.
MoS Karad revealed that the government has actively collaborated with regulatory bodies like the Reserve Bank of India and other stakeholders to curb the menace of illegal loan applications. Karad emphasized his proactive attitude towards maintaining cyber security capabilities and emphasized the importance of timely actions to mitigate vulnerabilities in India’s financial system.
As part of these efforts, he revealed that the RBI had shared a list of 442 unique digital lending apps with MeitY for whitelisting, and the same list was shared with Google. Later, MeitY partnered with the tech giant to remove or suspend more than 4,700 fraudulent loan apps from the Play Store over the past two and a half years.
According to Karad, in the cleanup, approximately 2,500 loan applications were removed between April 2021 and July 2022, and an additional 2,200 applications were removed between September 2022 and August 2023. The minister then emphasized that Google has introduced stricter policies regarding the enforcement of loan applications. In the Play Store, allowing only data published by regulated entities or their partners.
It was further noted that concurrently with these actions, RBI has issued regulatory guidelines on digital lending to strengthen the regulatory framework and enhance customer protection in the digital lending ecosystem. Additionally, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs has been actively monitoring digital lending apps.
The Ministry of Home Affairs for Trade Unions has launched a national cybercrime reporting portal and set up its own helpline for citizens to report cyber incidents, including those related to illegal loan applications. In addition, the government and the RBI have implemented various awareness-raising initiatives such as cyber security tips on social media, training manuals and cybercrime prevention campaigns.
The minister concluded by reaffirming the government’s commitment to fight cybercrime, especially related to fraudulent loan applications, through constant vigilance, regulatory actions and awareness campaigns such as RBI’s e-Banking Awareness and Training (e-BAAT) programmes.
