Digital lender created separate unit for ‘torture calls’

Raids conducted in Saidpur Road area, cases registered against 19 more suspects: FIA

RAWALPINDI:

The cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday said that it had arrested nine suspects for allegedly blackmailing people through predatory digital lending apps. The arrests come in the wake of a suicide this week believed to have been triggered by online loan sharks.

An FIA spokesperson said the raids were conducted in the Saidpur Road area and cases were also registered against 19 other suspects. A day earlier, the FIA raided the offices of one Bharosa app in G-8, seized data and equipment and sealed at least two premises.

Inspector Badar Munir led the raids on Friday in which different offices of the company located in a commercial plaza were sealed.

The suspects at the offices of these loan apps were given a target of making between 100 to 150 calls daily, said the statement. It included calls to the borrower as well as members of their family and friends.

Some of these illegal apps acquired the contact information of those who downloaded them. Others also gained access to the image gallery on the user’s phone.

A widely shared audio of the victim in the suicide earlier this week has him conversing with an employee of the lending app. The lender berates the victim over his inability to pay the loan, before calling his sister on a conference call and belittling him in front of her.

In a separate voice note, that the police said was sent by the victim to his wife, he says that he had decided to take his own life because he was ashamed at not being able to repay the loan.

The victim’s family said they started with a Rs13,000 loan, from the EasyLoan app, which quickly crossed six figures. The victim then borrowed from another app to pay the first loan. In a matter of weeks, he owed around Rs700,000.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2023.