Reporting an illegal lender on RBI's Sachet portal

Not every app that lends money and then terrorises borrowers is registered with the Reserve Bank of India. Many are not regulated at all — they hide behind a logo, collect your data, and harass you with no licence and no accountability. For exactly these entities, the RBI runs a dedicated reporting portal: Sachet, at sachet.rbi.org.in. This guide explains what it is for, when to use it, and how to file a clear report.

The name is apt — sachet means alert or vigilant. The portal exists so that the public can report entities that accept deposits or lend money unlawfully, and so that regulators and enforcement agencies have a single place to receive those alerts. If the app harassing you is not an RBI-regulated lender, Sachet is your RBI route.

Sachet or the Ombudsman? Knowing which door to use

This is the single most useful thing to get right, because it saves you weeks.

• The RBI Ombudsman (the RB-IOS scheme, filed at cms.rbi.org.in) is for complaints against Regulated Entities — banks and RBI-registered NBFCs. It assumes there is a regulated lender to hold accountable, which is why you first complain to that lender's grievance officer.
• Sachet is for unregistered, unauthorised or illegal money-lending and deposit-taking — including loan apps that are not RBI-regulated and have no legitimate NBFC behind them.

So before filing anywhere, find out what you are dealing with. Run a quick check on the lender or app to see whether it is RBI-registered and what entity actually stands behind it. If it is regulated, follow the grievance-officer-then-Ombudsman path. If you cannot find any registration — and especially if the app hides its real company name, address, or the lender it claims to partner with — Sachet is the right RBI channel, and you should also treat the operation as one to report to the police.

Before you file — collect your evidence

A report is only as strong as the specifics behind it, so gather your proof first. Storing it in one place — loantrap.org's free private locker is built for exactly this — makes the report quick to write and hard to dismiss.

Try to assemble:

• The app's name, the Play Store or App Store link if any, and the website it uses.
• Any company name, address, email, or phone numbers the app or its agents have used — even partial details help investigators connect the dots.
• Your loan details — the amount disbursed, the amount demanded, and the dates.
• Evidence of harassment — call recordings, screenshots of abusive messages, threats, and any contact made with people in your phone book.
• Payment proof — UPI references or bank entries showing what you actually paid, which often reveals unlawful charges.

The more concrete the detail, the more useful your report is to the people who act on it.

Filing a report on Sachet — step by step

Go to sachet.rbi.org.in. The portal lets the public both check information about registered entities and lodge complaints about unauthorised ones.

1. Open the complaint section. Look for the option to lodge or file a complaint against an entity. You will typically register or provide your contact details so the report can be tracked.
2. Identify the entity. Enter the app or company name and whatever identifying details you have. If you do not have a formal company name, describe the app precisely — its exact name, package, and the URLs and numbers it uses.
3. Choose the right category. Select the option that matches unauthorised or illegal lending. If you are unsure, pick the closest fit and explain clearly in the description.
4. Describe what happened. State the facts plainly and in date order: how the loan was taken, what was demanded, and how the harassment unfolded. Note specifically if the app accessed your contacts or gallery and threatened to misuse them, because that is a serious, reportable abuse.
5. Attach your evidence. Upload screenshots, recordings, and statements. Label them so each supports a specific point.
6. Submit and save the reference. Complete the submission and save any acknowledgement or reference number the portal gives you. Keep it with your other records.

If at any point the portal directs a particular type of grievance to another channel, follow that guidance — Sachet is also designed to point people to the correct forum.

What Sachet does — and what it does not

It helps to have honest expectations. Sachet is a reporting and information channel. The reports it gathers support the RBI and enforcement agencies in identifying and acting against unlawful operators. It is not an emergency service, and it does not by itself freeze an app overnight or recover your money.

That is why, for an illegal app, Sachet should rarely travel alone. Pair it with the routes that move faster on criminal conduct:

• Threats, extortion, blackmail, and morphed or obscene images go to the cybercrime helpline 1930 and cybercrime.gov.in, and to the police by FIR. You do not wait for anything before reporting these.
• Sexual harassment or obscene messaging targeting a woman can additionally be reported to the National Commission for Women (NCW).
• If the app misused your personal data — harvesting contacts, photos, or location and weaponising them — that abuse is itself reportable, and our guide on how loan apps misuse your data explains the data-protection angle.

Our help page lays these routes out in order so you can run them in parallel rather than one at a time.

Why reporting still matters even when you feel small

It is easy to think a single report against a faceless app will change nothing. It changes more than you think. Every report adds a data point — a name, a number, a pattern — that helps regulators and police see the shape of an operation that targets thousands of people exactly like you. Borrowers who report are not just helping themselves; they are part of how these networks eventually get shut down. Your account of what happened has weight precisely because it is specific and true.

And reporting reframes your own situation. You stop being a silent victim of an app you cannot even identify, and become someone who has put the facts on the regulator's record. That is a real shift, even before any visible action follows.

If you feel out of your depth

You can file on Sachet yourself, free, and it does not require a lawyer. But if the harassment has escalated into serious criminal threats, or a connected matter reaches a court, and you cannot afford legal help, you are entitled to free government legal aid through NALSA, your State Legal Services Authority (SLSA), or your District Legal Services Authority (DLSA). Our legal aid page explains how to reach them, and reaching out is simply using the system the way it was built.

Reporting an illegal lender will not undo the fear of the last few weeks. But it puts a marker down — against the app, on the record — and that marker is where accountability starts.

This is general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation — especially sustained threats or a court notice — consider free legal aid (NALSA/SLSA/DLSA) or a qualified advocate.