PAOCC chief logs 15,000 cases of harassed victims
The ill-effects of online lending application (OLA) debt-traps are worse than that of POGO operations and even online gambling, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission executive director Gilbert Cruz said.
Cruz said PAOCC is currently handling 15,000 cases of victims who were harassed by “keyboard warriors” of OLAs once they are unable to pay their debt, reminiscent of the classic “5-6” usurious lending practice.
“If victims fail to pay them, they will be harassed using their personal accounts, which they surrendered to online lending operators. These accounts were used as leverage against the victims,” Cruz said during the MACHRA Balitaan forum earlier this week.
“The operators will use your pictures and contacts to call your co-workers, and because of this, we even recorded incidents of suicide,” he said.
Since OLAs are easily accessible to Filipinos through their cell phones, borrowers are lured with the promise of quick and easy money but with interests ranging from 35 to 40 percent.
“While POGO crimes targeted foreign nationals, in the case of online lending apps, it is Filipinos against Filipinos.“
—PAOCC executive director Gilbert Cruz
“The lenders get the borrowers’ contact details, email, pay slips and social media accounts, among others and in the event of failure to pay on time, the borrowers are subjected to various harassment schemes to shame them publicly by informing all their friends and workmates via text, email and social media, even using artificial intelligence that would depict the borrower in a lewd situation like sex videos,” Cruz said.
He said PAOCC has recorded at least six deaths related to OLA, wherein the victims committed suicide due to the relentless harassment and shaming they have been subjected to for their failure to pay on time the money they had borrowed.
“While the crimes committed by alien POGO individuals were directed against their fellow nationals, in the case of LOA, it is Filipinos against Filipinos,” Cruz said.
Earlier, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian warned the growing prevalence of OLAs is enabling a deeper financial crisis among Filipinos already trapped in online gambling, pushing many further into debt and despair.
“They are addicted to online gambling and now exploited by online lending apps,” the senator said.
Gatchalian earlier filed a resolution seeking a Senate investigation into the unchecked spread of OLAs and their alleged abusive debt collection practices, which include harassment, public shaming, and unauthorized access to personal data.
Gatchalian urged relevant government agencies to step up enforcement of existing regulations against unlicensed and abusive OLAs.
