Inside the deadly instant loan app scam that blackmails with nudes

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66964510

by yarapavan • 3 years ago

28 8 3 years ago

yarapavan• 3 years ago

The story is about a global scam that uses instant loan apps to entrap and humiliate people across India and other countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The scam involves harvesting borrowers' contacts, photos, and ID cards, and then using that information to extort them into repayment. When borrowers don't repay on time, or even when they do, scammers share this information with a call center where agents are trained to harass and humiliate them. The scam is particularly devastating in India, where at least 60 people have killed themselves after being abused and threatened.

mainpassathome• 3 years ago

llm

clnq2• 3 years ago

Wow. Wild that people surely know about these extortions, and they still ostracize the victims who are their acquaintances. It almost doesn’t make sense that anyone would pay attention to the deepfakes. It’s even wilder that in light of all the evidence this generates, the call centers are allowed to exist. Finally, I can’t believe that the people in these call centers laugh and enjoy extorting others. So many things are deeply rotten in a society that allows this.

Yeul• 3 years ago

No offense but this is a very naive comment. There are countries on this planet were girls are literally burned alive for kissing a man.

throwawayqqq11• 3 years ago

So biggest "democracy" with a caste system and origin of gurus is less rotten?

Killing others is bad enough but it always begins with ignorance.

ta_vf7xjd34cc• 3 years ago

Till a few years back (I am not sure if they still do), banks and finance companies would use heavy-handed methods in order to collect debt. If you go back further in time when there was very little organized lending, farmers would be at the mercy of money lenders. I guess all this has migrated to loan apps with the added bonus of "nudes."

The problem is, desperate people will borrow from anyone under any terms. If it is not this, then it would be some local "moneylender" with muscle.

Edit: Some recent cases.

[1] Scared of humiliation over bank attachment notice, college student dies by suicide (https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/thiruvananthapuram/...)

[2] Pregnant woman crushed to death under tractor wheels by recovery agents, RBI bars Mahindra Finance from loan recovery through 3rd party agents (https://zeenews.india.com/personal-finance/pregnant-woman-cr...)

Inside the deadly instant loan app scam that blackmails with nudes

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