Reached by phone, she said she had requested a loan of $600 from Ahli Microfinance. When the company asked her what she planned to do with the money, she lied and said she wanted to open a home-based business.

Instead she used the money to pay rent.

“We thought it was a solution to help us, a way to survive,” she said.

The company did not seem to be concerned about where the money went, she said.

“They never came to see if I opened the project or how I used the money,” she said. “The loan officers just called me asking why I couldn’t pay back the debt, and then an arrest warrant was issued against me. Now I’m in hiding.”

Ahli Microfinance would not comment on her specific case.

Officials with two loan companies who described their practices on condition of anonymity said that they do send loan officers to check on their clients but that they are not always able to verify the clients’ situations.

In some cases, they said, women will allow only female loan officers into their homes; in others, the women may have already defaulted on the loans before an officer can visit.

Microloans have interest rates ranging from 22 percent to 50 percent, and many loan outfits charge a processing fee of $70 to $280 on top of that. In some cases, the interest rate may increase if payments are late.