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| Online loan apps: 'After my husband's nude photos were shared, my photos were also uploaded on the wrong website' |
'Edited pictures of my husband were sent to our acquaintances, in which my husband was shown naked with another woman, the chain did not stop there, they put my pictures on the wrong website with a number. From where I would get calls and make some wrong demands every day.'
This is the story of Fawzia (pseudonym) whose husband took a loan of Rs 10,000 from an online app a few months ago and within a short period, the loan increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 10,000. After which Fawzia and her husband had to sell their household items to pay off the debt.
In this fast-paced era of social media, one must be afraid that one's pictures may fall into the hands of the wrong person because they can be misused afterward.
Fauzia and her husband started being blackmailed for money for which their pictures were misused.
Fawzia's husband had a vegetable business in which he employed other people, but the situation reached such a point that he did not even have milk to feed his baby girl.
Why did Fauzia and her husband have to sell their household goods to pay off their debts? In the answer to this question, there is a story hidden, which makes a person afraid as soon as he hears it.
In the year 2020, easy installment loans through online apps started in Pakistan during the Covid epidemic. When the borrowers download the app and see the terms and conditions of the loan, they do not know that what is written is going to conflict with them.
For example, the time to repay the loan is 91 days, and only three percent interest is asked to be paid on the borrowed amount.
But when a person takes a loan through these online apps, within a week he starts getting calls from different numbers asking him to repay the loan and the loan amount doubles day by day.
When any app is downloaded from Play Store or Apple Store, they ask permission from the user to access the phone and upon granting the access, the user's phone data is available to the respective company.
'Husband tried to commit suicide twice
This is what happened to Fauzia and her husband. He got a call a week later and was told to pay off the loan he had taken or else he would have to pay five thousand in interest on it.
She tells about her bitter experience 'I tell my husband on the phone to give me money, otherwise, we will tell your acquaintances that you have taken a loan and are not paying it back. My husband said that it is 91 days and why are you forcing us to return the loan now, well we somehow gave five thousand to them but the cycle did not stop here.
She says that now the situation is that if we eat one time, we wait for two hours for someone to come and give us food. My husband and I make ends meet, but we have a daughter who is so weak due to a lack of food that she looks younger than her age.
Fauzia said that her husband was so fed up with these conditions that he tried to commit suicide twice a few days ago.
"They took me and my daughter out of the room and tried to commit suicide by hanging me from the fan. Then one day, fed up with the repeated phone calls, they tried to commit suicide by electrocuting me. Did too.
There are thousands of people like Fauzia and her husband who fell victim to this online fraud and face blackmail.
From these online apps, someone took a loan of 13 thousand rupees and then sold his house and paid 17 lakhs, someone took 20 thousand rupees and sold his shop and even his wife's jewelry to pay 13 lakhs.
Another example is that of 42-year-old Muhammad Masood in Rawalpindi, Punjab. Those who took loans from such online apps and got fed up with the blackmail allegedly committed suicide.
After Muhammad Masood's suicide, people on social media demanded action against these apps and these people, after which government agencies came into action, and action was intensified against these fraudulent companies.
What action was taken against these online companies?
After talking to a few people who were victims of fraud, it was found that many people informed FIA about these apps many times but no effective action was taken.
BBC spoke to Additional Director Cyber Crime Wing Islamabad Ayaz Khan to find out what action has been taken against all such companies that have been involved in online fraud so far.
Ayaz Khan said that he had been receiving complaints regarding online apps for a long time, on which he had already started an inquiry.
He says that whenever these apps are downloaded from Google or Apple Store, they are regulated by the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. This means which company these apps belong to, who is the founder, and all other information they have. Therefore, when we received complaints, we first asked the SECP whether the apps complained against were licensed. On they told us that these apps are not licensed and that even if an app is licensed, it is violating their law.
Ayaz Khan says that since these lending apps do not have offices and borrowers receive loan recovery calls from a new number every time, it is difficult to trace their whereabouts.
He says that the calls from these companies have been tracked and action has been taken and recently after the alleged suicide of Muhammad Masood, these actions have been accelerated.
"We have registered seven FIRs, arrested 25 people, closed the offices of seven companies in the form of call centers, and frozen 35 bank accounts," he said.
Ayaz Khan said that the strictest cybercrime law has been made for those who edit pictures. According to this the person who does so can be punished with imprisonment of five years. It is a non-bailable offense and is punishable with a fine.
Ayaz Khan says that many people were not aware of the fraud of these apps and used to download them when the need arose, but the alleged suicide of a citizen of Rawalpindi and his viral phone recordings in this case on social media. Because people know about these apps.
Ayaz Khan, Additional Director of Cybercrime Islamabad, said that if any person is being harassed or harassed, they should also register a complaint on the Cybercrime website or at the FIA or Cybercrime offices in their area.
He assured that immediate action will be taken against these people.
"I went to the government offices several times and protested against this fraud."
People like Aqeel Noomi and Imran Chaudhry are making people aware of these apps. They have fallen prey to the fraud of these apps.
Aqeel Noomi has created a channel on YouTube where he tells people how they can protect themselves from this blackmail.
Similarly, Imran Chaudhry has also protested against the counterfeiting of these apps by going in front of the offices of government institutions.
He says 'When I came to know that this is a huge fraud which millions of people are falling prey to every day and many people have even reached the point of committing suicide, I contacted several news channels, FIA, SE. He went to the CP office and protested.
Imran Chaudhry has been raising his voice against these apps for the past four years. He launched an awareness campaign across Pakistan and now he has thousands of people on WhatsApp who are fed up with blackmail and seek his help.
Imran Chaudhry says that he told FIA several times about this fraud but they did not take any action.
He says that now in the press release issued by FIA, it has been said that they are taking action against these companies across the country and then people have got enough awareness on social media.
"We hope to completely shut down these apps in the future."
How are these apps licensed?
How is Easy Loan app licensed and what action has been taken against illegal apps?
Regarding this, Secretary Director of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Khaleda Habib said that SECP regulates the economic sector.
This means that the license is issued by this institution to non-banking companies. By which these companies can do the work of lending in the country.
"Whenever we give a license to a company, we first check who is investing in that company, who is its head, and other things," she says. Then we give the cybercrime form which contains all the things that will be considered while giving the loan, we also check the system and procedure of the app we are approving according to cyber security. Be there.'
Khaleda Habib further said that after the launch of these apps, complaints about these apps started to be received in which many questions were being asked about these apps.
The SECP issued a notification in 2022 ensuring that the customer's mobile access is restricted, and the loan amount and other things are fully disclosed to the customer.
"We talked to PTA, Google, State Bank, and other stakeholders and took action on all the apps that were operating illegally," she says. We told Google to block the apps we are identifying, and so far Google has blocked 65 apps.
Khaleda Habib says that Google has also introduced a new policy according to which any app will have to show SECP and State Bank license to work.
Apart from this, the SECP has also asked the PTA to block the EPI addresses of the illegal apps already downloaded on the mobile phones of the users and the State Bank has also been informed. That they should not allow any such app to be used for money transactions through banks or any other means that does not have an SECP license.
Will illegal apps be banned permanently? In response to this question, Khaleda Habib said that SECP is a supervisory body. Its job is to identify and block illegal apps, we will continue to block these apps in the future as well and take action against them.
How to find SECP approved app?
How to make sure which apps are SEP developed if you want to borrow?
Everyone in Pakistan still wants to get a loan in easy installments. That's why Khaleda Habib told a few things that anyone can know to avoid online fraud by taking a loan.
Before downloading any app loan app user should visit the SECP website and check the whitelist. An app that is whitelisted means that it has been thoroughly vetted and licensed. Currently, there are only two apps that are licensed by SECP.
Whenever you download an app, make sure to grant access to the phone only once as the app takes a selfie to verify ID.
Before taking a loan, check all the terms and conditions carefully and make sure there are no terms that are unclear or unacceptable.
The customer should clearly know how much interest he has to pay. All the terms are also explained in audio for the convenience of the user, listen to them as well.
The customer should get the loan only if he is sure that he will repay the loan at the specified time.