Have you ever experienced a loan shark all over you and need to know how to report online loan harassment in Nigeria to the federal government or app store so it can be banned? This is the guide you want to read because my best friend was hunted by a loan app and I’m going to share with you how we reported the loan harassment and what happened to it later.
Yesterday I wrote an article about whether you can go to jail for not paying a loan company your loan. You should go read the post to fully understand the dangers of not paying a loan company when it’s necessary. However, today, we are going to focus on how to report online loan harassment in Nigeria to stay safe from the insane harassment from loan companies.
All your questions about loan harassment in Nigeria would be answered here based on my experience with my friend, Moses (Pseudonym), and how we were able to overcome the harassment from the online loan company.
How Illegal loan apps Are Ignoring Nigeria’s cyber laws, and continue to Shame Customers
This report was filed by International Centre For Investigative Reporting (ICIR) about Moses Kayode (Pseudonym) who took a loan from a loan shark called AddMoney. Moses needed an emergency loan from AddMoney to sort out his issues but later changed his mind about the loan.
Moses contacted the loan company to discontinue the loan offer that he was no longer interested in and had gotten a new alternative. However, to his greatest surprise, Moses got a credit alert the next morning from the so-called loan app.
Surprised by this, he got curious and needed to refund the money to the loan company as soon as possible. Moses visited the company’s address as confirmed on their website. However, Moses got the biggest shock of his life when he got to the so-called address on their website at the second-floor building of No. 13 King George V Road, Victoria Island in Lagos State.
AddMoney Loan app is one of those illegal loan apps in Nigeria that tormented the privacy of Nigerians going against local laws. Although AddMoney loan app belongs to a Nigerian legally registered company “Rock Financials Limited” which is registered with Corporate Affairs Commissions.
Even though the company is registered, it has not been licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate as a money lender that borrows customers’ money. So it is illegal. According to the report, AddMoney also owned other illegal notorious apps on the play store in place of Aimloan, and AnyLoan. However, both apps have since been banned and removed by the Google play store following the reports launched against them by various users and online platforms like Property9ja that are constantly monitoring these apps.
How To Report Online Loan Harassment In Nigeria
Having reported how Moses handled his online loan crisis, Let’s discuss various ways you can report online loan harassment in Nigeria and get out of the so-called loan sharks.
Report the App on Google App Store
The first step is to report illegal loan apps on the Google play store. If you are facing the challenge of a loan app constantly harassing you, you need to go to your Android pay store and report to Google that such an app is invading your privacy and you are under attack for harassment.
Google would receive your notification and would immediately review your report and take immediate action against such loan app and remove it from its platform.
People trust apps published on any Appstore and therefore was Google removes it from its platform, it means people would no longer trust it and download it. This way, the app can no longer offer loans to others and harass them.
However, since you are already in, you might still consider facing such harassment sometimes since your data has already been downloaded into their system.
Send your report to a Media House
Many online media platforms can help you publish your entire story on their platforms for free without charging you. For example, if you send us a harassment case we can publish it immediately and once Google checks for reports against such a loan app, it would remove it.
Sometimes if your story is genuine and flies very well, it can get the attention of the state or federal government to apply local laws against such loan apps and instruct Google for immediate actions against such loan apps. Other platforms you can report to include FastLoanApps.com and Quickloanarena.com.
Read Also: How to stop loan apps from accessing your contacts
How To Report Loan Harassment To Google Play Protect
The fastest way to report an app or a loan app is by using the app store on which it is hosted. In this case, the most common one is Google Play Store which uses a security layer called “Play Protect” to fight against malware, privacy, and other cyber harassment.
If you find an app to be annoying and harassing you, then you need to head over to Playstore and do the needful. Below are the steps to follow
Step 1. Launch the Google App on your phone
You need to, first of all, open your Play Store app on your phone or go to https://play.google.com to connect via the web using your computer or any browser on your phone.
Step 2: Search for the loan app
Search for the loan app that you intend to report on the Google play store. When you find it, that means the app is still hosted on the platform and you need to proceed to the next option. Sometimes if you don’t use the right keyword, you might not find it.
If you find the app, kindly launch it to proceed to the next level and move on to the next step.
Step 3: Scroll Down To What’s New
Now, depending on your device, kindly scroll to the section that says “What’s new?”. In this section, you would see something like Flag as inappropriate. This would launch a Google web page where you read different and various means by which one can report an app on their Google Playstore.
What you want to do depends on the device you are using to browse, Then follow the next step to get it done.
Step 4: Fill out the form and Submit
Google would show you a link to click and report a problem. So you need to click here to get a contact form that let you fill in a certain amount of information and get your answers once they are reviewed.
Alternatively, you can click this direct link to get to the page where you need to fill such a form and report any app at tall on the Google play store for it to be banned and removed.
Now, Google would review your report and complain then decide whether it is good enough to ban such a loan app or to keep it. But whatever the case, you’ve succeeded in reporting the app.
In A Nutshell;
The best way to report online loan harassment in Nigeria is to report it to the Google Playstore (Google Play Protect) while the second option is to report such app to an online media platform so the harassment could be publicized and gain awareness and perhaps the government get to see it and take immediate actions.
