Eighth floor of a 7-floor building, a jhopdi, a CA’s office and even thin air

Faizan Khan Anurag Kamble and Shirish VaktaniaMobile apps doling out instant loans operate through several layers of secrecy midday found during its investigation If these apps engage cybercriminals whom cops struggle to track down to harass borrowers they also work from ghost locations midday visited the addresses of several apps only to find them fake While one app has shown its address on the eighth floor of a sevenstorey building anotherrsquos address is that of a CArsquos officeAmid their galore of unethical practices fake addresses also help digital lending apps evade angry victims and the police Herersquos what midday encountered during its visits to a few addresses of the loan apps displayed on the Google Play StoreOB Cash and Apna Paisa show offices at Dani Corporate Park Kalina but none existsHi PocketOn Google Play Store the app shows its office on the second floor of Shiv Chambers a building housing workplaces of several companies in Navi Mumbai When midday visited office number A206 looking for the staff of Hi Pocket instant loan app we were greeted by a board that read Manish K Ramawati and Company Chartered AccountantsldquoYe chartered accountant ka office hairdquo said the lone staffer in the office when we showed him the address of Hi Pocket loan app But the man sprang a surprise after we told him we were looking for a loanUrgentCash claims to have an office at this building along Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai Some other firm was found at the given addressldquoLoan ka ho jayega mai sab se baat karata hu your loan will be done Irsquoll speak to all concerned the staffer said He then dialled his boss perhaps the CA and handed over the phone to the midday correspondent The correspondent told the person on the other side that he was a Uber driver and needed a personal loan ldquoPersonal loan is available only for working professionalsrdquo replied the manA Chartered Accountantrsquos office greeted midday at the Navi Mumbai address given by the digital lending app Hi Pocket Surprisingly the staff there offered to facilitate loansThe man didnrsquot respond to our query on how a CA was providing personal loans He asked the phone to be given to his staffer The two spoke for a while after which the staffer asked the midday correspondent to visit later and meet himWe tried to reach the CA whose numbers were displayed at the entrance of the office One number was switched off while the other doesnrsquot existAnother unusual sight caught our attention A board at the entrance of the 6storey building displayed the names of all the offices except for the company at A206 When we checked with the staff at neighbouring offices they had no clue about Hi Pocket They only remembered A206 as the office of a CAOB Cash Apna Paisamidday tried to visit the offices of OB Cash and Apna Paisa digital lending firms at Dani Corporate Park 158 CST Road at Kalina Santacruz Eastmdashas mentioned by the companies But no such offices were found at this corporate park While the office address of OB Cash mentioned on Google pages is on the 8th floor of the building the structure has only seven floorsA security guard at Dani Park told midday ldquoEvery day many people visit this corporate park looking for a loan companyrsquos office on the 8th floor We tell them that itrsquos a fake address A lot of them tell us that they are getting threatening calls and have filed a police complaintrdquoUJ Personal loan WallabyUJ Personal loan and Wallaby have mentioned their addresses as Andheri and Dadar respectively midday found addresses to be fakeAs per UJ Personal loan its office is located at 6 Apna Ghar Society No 7 Sunshine Subway restaurant Lokhandwala Andheri West while Wallaby from where our reporter took a loan as part of our investigation has listed its address as 36 OB Veer Savarkar Marg Dadar WestUrgentCashLooking for the office of online lending company UrgentCash a midday correspondent reached Bhumiraj Costarica located just beside Navi Mumbairsquos Palm Beach Road The commercial building has all sorts of offices dealing in real estate to chocolates midday reached the 10th floor of the building where UrgentCashrsquos office is supposed to be located But we found the space has been occupied by Swamee Public Relations and Heaven ChocolatesAsked about the loan company a staffer said ldquoI donrsquot know about any such company our office shifted here eight months ago We donrsquot know anythingrdquo We also visited the office of Universe Mines Private Limited on the opposite side An employee who refused to identify himself said he has been working there for 4 years but had never heard of UrgentCashCashlightLending app CashLight mentions its address as Room No 211 Rajiv Gandhi Maidan Tagore Nagar Vikhroli East midday found the address is of a chawl which has formed a housing society Locals said the society doesnrsquot have any shops or offices We met Balasaheb Gaikwad president of Rajiv Gandhi Nagar Sahkari Gruhnirman Sanstha He said ldquoI am born and brought in this Nagar Itrsquos been 45 years since I am here but this is the first time I am hearing of this lending appIn fact this is the first time someone has come here asking for this addressrdquo