New Delhi: Actor Sunny Leone has claimed to be the latest target of identity theft in a series of alleged loan frauds on the fintech platform Dhani Stocks Limited, reported on social media this month.
On Thursday, Leone tweeted, “This just happened to me. INSANE. Some idiot used my Pan to take a 2000 RS loan and FCK’d my CIBIL score (SIC)”, referring to her credit score.
This just happened to me. INSANE. Some idiot used my Pan to take a 2000 RS loan and FCK'd my CIBIL score and @IVLSecurities did nothing to help sort. HOW DOES INDIA BULLS ALLOW THIS @ibhomeloans @CIBIL_Official https://t.co/GexQNLTp6P
— sunnyleone (@SunnyLeone) February 17, 2022
The Bollywood actor also tagged Indiabulls Securities Limited (Dhani Stocks was earlier Indiabulls Securities), and Indiabulls Home Loans in her tweet, alleging that the company had done “nothing” to help solve the matter.
The Indiabulls Group still owns Dhani, which provides services like offering credit to purchase essentials like groceries, stock brokerage, and a credit card with credit limit of Rs 5 lakh. Dhani also has an ecommerce store with products ranging from medicine to stationery.
In an email statement to ThePrint Dhani claimed measures had been taken “immediately” to mitigate impact of the scammers, which included talking to all complainants to establish if they had indeed been victims of identity theft and then rectifying their records in the credit bureaus, using a security platform called G-defence to prevent further identity theft and expanding the customer service team and starting a special menu on the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) of its customer service helpline to help complainants.
The company did not, however, answer ThePrints questions on whether a glitch in the system at Dhani was resulting in loans being approved even when the PAN appeared to have been inaccurate and whether Leone’s claim about her identity being used to get a Dhani loan was correct.
Leone not lone victim
Leone is not the only target of alleged identity theft and loan fraud happening on Dhani services. Several Twitter users in India have this month complained that their identity details were used without consent to avail loans on Dhani.
Screenshots shared with one of the tweets indicate, however, that the alleged frauds date back to at least November last year.
“Shocking revelation in my credit report. A loan disbursed by IVL Finance (Indiabulls) @dhanicares with my PAN number & name, addresses in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. I have no clue”, tweeted a Reuters journalist @adityakalra
Shocking revelation in my credit report. A loan disbursed by IVL Finance (Indiabulls) @dhanicares with my PAN number & name, addresses in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. I have no clue. How can a disbursal happen on my name and PAN. In default already @RBI @IncomeTaxIndia @nsitharaman pic.twitter.com/LMMrwKyeit
— Aditya Kalra (@adityakalra) February 13, 2022
Another user, @1kushagra1, had tweeted, “Somehow someone has availed a loan fraudulently on my name. My details are not matching. It has been a month and I am getting blank emails as replies from Dhani.”
Somehow someone has availed a loan fraudulently on my name. My details are not matching. It has been a month and I am getting blank emails as replies from Dhani. Also sent a mail to the nodal head but no reply from him. @RBI @IncomeTaxIndia @nsitharaman @dhanicares @adityakalra pic.twitter.com/E3pcSppOgE
— Kushagra Agrawal (@1kushagra1) February 16, 2022
Communications consultant, @beastoftraal, also tweeted, “My ‘ghost’ loan is still visible. I’m most definitely taking Dhani to the cleaners even if they clear just my issue”.
I checked earlier today. My 'ghost' loan is still visible. I'm most definitely taking Dhani to the cleaners even if they clear just my issue.
— Karthik ?? (@beastoftraal) February 16, 2022
Dhani has been responding via its Twitter account to users who have tagged the company complaining of identity theft and loan fraud.
The company, in its statement to ThePrint, also added that Dhani had disbursed “small transaction finance loans” to over 35 lakh people in the past year and “99.9%” of those loans went to “genuine people”. “We will leave no stone unturned to mitigate any possibility of identity theft on our Fintech platform,” the statement added.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
(This article has been updated to include a statement from Dhani.)
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