Imagine that you really need money and that you have an app on your phone that tells you exactly how much you need.

Would you agree to whatever terms they give you, like giving them your card information, ID, and BVN?

Once you do that, the money will be sent to you in a matter of minutes. This seems easy, but if you can’t pay back the loan and interest, there are problems.

In this case, someone who borrowed money from an online loan shark found out the hard way what happens if you don’t pay it back.

The person’s friend had this to say:

“My friend got a loan from one of these online loan sites. Most of the time, their interest rates are between 10% and 30%.

“When a borrower doesn’t pay back a loan, the borrower and the loan platform are always at odds. The fines for not paying are also very high. They call the people on people’s phone lists (as the app requires borrowers to grant it access to their contacts).

“When the payment period is over and you can’t pay, they hire loan recovery agents to get you to pay back what you owe.

“They also tell the credit bureau about people who don’t pay back their loans. This makes it hard for those people to get loans from any Nigerian bank.

“With BVN, people who don’t pay back their loans can now be put on a blacklist. They also ask you to link a bank card to them or give them your bank information. This gives them the right to keep taking money off your card every time it’s paid.”

“I mean that loan collection agents go to court and keep calling them and their family and friends until they pay up.”

Nigeria’s bad economy has forced a lot of people to look for other ways to make their lives better.

And because traditional banks make it hard to get a loan, more and more young Nigerians are turning to online loan sharks who have fewer rules.

This has its own risks, though, because if they don’t pay back on time, it can hurt not only their financial future, but also their social reputation, especially in a world where everything is digital.

Since these online platforms aren’t fully regulated, they come up with a lot of sneaky ways to get people to pay back their loans.

When you borrow money, the whole point is to be able to pay it back.

If you can’t pay back the loan, you should stay away from these online loan platforms.