phone rings the promise is an instant loan. the reality is a nightmare. across india, at least 60 people have taken their own

lives after being abused and blackmailed by loan apps. bbc eye investigations goes undercover to reveal the scam that's plaguing india... ..and to expose the people making money from misery, fear and shame. this is how the trap is set. you get a message saying you've been approved for an instant loan. all you have to do is download the app,

accept the terms and conditions... ..and the money is yours. what you don't know is you're already in the trap. the app is extracting all your personal information — your id cards, your photos and videos. the names and numbers of yourfamily, your colleagues, yourfriends. that's when the extortion begins. my name is poonam agarwal. i am an investigative reporter. last year, i began to hear stories about people scammed by loan apps.

most victims are too ashamed to talk, but one wanted to warn of the dangers of the trap. bhoomi moved from loan app to loan app, borrowing one loan to pay another, often getting 30 or a0 calls a day. eventually, she paid them off. but one app, asan loan, kept calling.

asan loan had photoshopped bhoomi's face onto this porn image and sent it to every contact on her phone.

i'm getting too...

it had been hard to find a victim willing to talk. it was even harder to find a perpetrator. eventually, though, i got in touch with a young guy, rohan — not his real name — who had worked recovering money for loan apps.

to expose the scam, i needed evidence. so, i asked rohan to wear a secret camera and take us inside a call centre. rohan is going inside majesty legal. lock beeps this delhi—based company doesn't give out loans. it calls borrowers on behalf of the loan apps to chase payments. most calls are polite. but if you don't pay on time,

things start to get nasty. rohan had gathered crucial evidence of abuse, but some of his colleagues were getting suspicious. it wasn't safe to send rohan

back, but now he told me about another call centre — a place in noida — where the abuse was said to be even worse. they were recruiting agents, and rohan applied for a job. while rohan was undercover, i was still trying to find out who had harassed bhoomi to the brink of suicide. we had heard that many of these apps are owned by chinese investors, but we could find no name or address. the app just said asan loan. eventually, ifound a name for the man running asan loan... ..parshuram takve. takve had a facebook page... ..and a chinese wife named liang tian tian. he also had a criminal record. takve had been running debt recovery for multiple loan apps.

complaints had piled up — extortion, blackmail, the use of obscene images. in december 2020, he had been arrested and released on bail. the facebook account was locked, and the man had vanished. but in pune, ifound someone who used to work for parshuram takve. takve was running recovery for many loan apps.

and then the worst happened — customers began taking their own lives. we know of at least three people who killed themselves after being shamed by takve's recovery agents.

they aren't just numbers. they all had a name, a family and a future. in telangana, ifound the parents of one of them... ..a 24—year—old woman called mounika.

he sobs quietly she sobs quietly

was there no limit to the misery the loan apps would inflict? it made me even more determined to expose the people profiting from the trap. then, i got a call from rohan. he had been accepted for thejob at the call centre in noida. lock beeps this is the callflex corporation, a call centre that recovers money for loan apps,

including one called paysense. most calls are respectful. butjust like in the first call centre, if you fail to pay, the tone changes. if you still don't pay, the threats begin. rohan�*s new colleagues were brazen about the tactics they used.

after three weeks filming secretly inside the call centre, rohan met me in a park.

so, rohan arranged a meeting with the manager. he went with another undercover reporter posing as an investor. they asked vishal chaurasia to explain exactly how loan recovery works.

abuse was effective, but even more powerful was shame. the manager had distilled the scam to its essence — call centres recover money for loan apps by threatening to destroy people's lives.

breaking news coming in — when it comes to the crackdown on chinese loan apps, that's our top focus on the bulletin. the indian authorities were starting to crack down on the loan apps. in april 2022, parshuram takve and his chinese wife were charged with extortion, intimidation and abetment of suicide. by the end of the year, they were on the run. behind takve, there's a whole web of companies. parshuram takve was the director of four businesses.

his chinese wife, liang tian tian, gave her name to the largest, jiyaliang, which recovered money for predatory loan apps. some of those loan apps were set up or supported by two chinese—owned companies. behind both of them was a mysterious businessman called li xiang. li xiang kept himself well hidden. we found nothing online — no social media accounts and no photos. but the money trail led to one city — hong kong. here, we found a phone number linked to one of his employees. posing as investors, we asked if he could set up a meeting with li xiang. phone rings hello? ni hao.

hey, hey. li xiang, ni hao. hao. . ni hao. li xiang was quick to tell us about his fintech and loan app businesses in india. then li xiang made the key admission — his companies, controlled from hong kong, harvest indians�* contacts and exploit them to recover loans. their recovery plan is precise.

finally, we had a face for li xiang, and evidence that he was profiting from the misery of ordinary people. parshuram takve used extortion, intimidation and fear in order to recover money. at least some of that money ended up in the accounts of this man. when i started this investigation, i never imagined the misery i would find. at least 60 indians,

many of them very young, have killed themselves after being blackmailed and shamed by the loan apps. it was heartbreaking. but despite the suffering, the scam continues. a year after parshuram takve went on the run, his app, asan loan, is still trading, still abusing, still destroying lives. in mumbai, though, bhoomi was starting to rebuild hers.

hello. after what was a very wet october for many places, the beginning of november promises more rain, particularly through wednesday night into thursday thanks to storm ciaran — this storm named by the met office.

it will bring widespread heavy rain, but in the south of the uk and the channel islands, there is the threat of damaging winds. on our earlier satellite image, you can see that storm just beginning to develop, this hook appearing in the cloud. that's an area of low pressure that is deepening, and will continue to deepen as it pushes in our direction. in the short term, this frontal system pushing its way north—eastwards through wednesday. that's going to bring some outbreaks of pretty heavy rain, some squally, gusty winds across the south—east corner first thing as this band of showers works its way eastwards. a band of heavy rain pushing out of northern ireland and northern england and then up across scotland, briefly some snow over high ground in northern scotland, then turning back to rain. windy in the north and in the west of scotland. sunshine and showers developing for northern ireland, england and wales. temperatures of 7—14 degrees in most places. and then, as we head into the evening and overnight, this is where storm ciaran starts to make its move. very heavy rain swinging its way across the south of the uk and some really strong winds.

see the isobars here on our pressure chart really squeezing together. there are met office amber warnings that have been issued for parts of south—west wales, more especially south—west england, and then along the english channel coast and up into parts of east anglia. inland gusts of around 70 mph. coastal parts likely to see gusts of 70—80 mph. and not covered by met office weather warnings, but the channel islands could see the worst of the weather — gusts here could well touch 90 mph. with those strong winds, some very heavy rain across many parts of england, wales, southern and eastern scotland, perhaps fringing into northern ireland as we go through the day on thursday. and temperature—wise, ten, 11, 12 degrees. so that rain could cause some issues with flooding, those strong winds bring the risk of damage and disruption. and our area of low pressure will still be with us as we move on into friday, weakening as it goes, so the winds should ease just a little bit. but it does remain very unsettled, with more rain, as we head into the weekend.

live from washington. this is bbc news.

israel confirms an strike on the jabalia refugee camp. hamas says 50 people were killed. israel says a senior hamas commander was killed. secretary of state antony blinken will head to israel later this week. we will look at the broader us support for israel. israel's military has confirmed itsjets carried out an attack on the jabalia refugee camp in gaza in order to kill a senior hamas commander. the overall number killed in the strike is unclear, with estimates from 25 to well over 100. the blast occurred injabalia, a camp in northern gaza, a densely built—up area, home to more than 100,000 people. it's an area the israeli government told people to leave for their safety.