Acting against loan applications involved in blackmailing citizens, the authorities blocked 43 such applications in the country.
It may be noted that an unemployed citizen from Rawalpindi, who took a loan from the loan application ‘Easy Loan’, committed suicide after receiving ‘threats’ and daily blackmailing and increasing interest for alleged non-payment of 8 lac rupees.
After the above issue came to light, the authorities swung into action, and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested several people running such loan applications and seized their laptops.
Spokesman FIA had said that cybercrime circle Rawalpindi arrested 9 suspects involved in blackmailing through online loan applications during various operations; cybercrime circle conducted these operations with financial services.
On the other hand, Science and Technology Minister Syed Aminul Haque directed PTA Chairman Major General Hafeezur Rehman to take immediate action against such applications.
43 such applications have been blocked in implementing the minister’s instructions immediately.
In this regard, in the statement issued by the Ministry of IT, it was said concerning the Federal Minister that such companies are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
The statement said that through Facebook and other social media platforms, the lending mafia is blackmailing simple people against which the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) advised and supported the SECP.
The federal minister said that a campaign should also be conducted to the users’ awareness so that they could not become victims of this type of blackmailing mafia, while the public should also complain about such applications, PTA, FIA Cybercrime, and local police.
In this regard, Minister IT Syed Aminul Haque also contacted the Director General FIA and took a briefing on the actions taken so far.
He directed that FIA cyber crime wing should take action against such elements automatically instead of waiting for complaints.
Syed Aminul Haque said that it is necessary to suppress those elements who take advantage of the compulsions of the people and push them into the darkness of death, asking for millions of rupees back by lending thousands and giving threats in this regard, blackmailing user’s data.
The Federal Minister said that consumers should not share their data with anyone after being influenced by online and social media advertisements.
At the same time, he warned that caution is necessary to earn dollars online, so no money or information should be provided.
Citizen Suicide
A few days ago, an unemployed citizen from Rawalpindi, Muhammad Masood, committed suicide after receiving ‘threats’ for non-payment of Rs 8 lac on a loan taken through a mobile application.
The 42-year-old citizen’s widow said that her husband had been fired from his job 6 months ago, which made it difficult to pay the children’s school fees and house rent, on which Masood took loans from two separate applications. Out of which, the debt of one application increased to more than 7 lac rupees.
She had said that her husband took a loan of Rs 13,000 from the ‘Easy Loan’ application to pay the children’s fees and house rent, which increased to Rs 1 lac with interest on non-payment within a few days. For repayment, including interest, he again took a loan from another application called ‘Bharusa’, which increased to 7 lac in a few weeks with interest.
The widow further said that the loan application initially stated that Masood would have to repay the loan with 14 per cent interest, but it was being increased daily.
She had said that the applicant used to call and threaten police action every day due to the delay in loan payment, and the husband, who was also the father of two children, committed suicide by hanging himself.
FIA Proceedings
The FIA had launched an investigation against the online loan app after a citizen committed suicide after being blackmailed by the recovery staff of the loan service and seized several laptops and computers during various raids.
The spokesperson of FIA said that a case has been registered against 19 accused, and raids are being conducted to arrest others besides 9 arrested accused. At the same time, an investigation has been started against the arrested accused.
The cybercrime wing of the FIA had revealed that the loan company had set targets for suspects making threatening calls to defaulters and operating in different sections.
According to the FIA, the recovery staff also called the near relatives, friends, and neighbors of the defaulters and forced them to repay the loan with a huge markup.
He said that each arrested accused used to make 100 to 150 calls daily, and FIA is conducting more raids to arrest other accused.
Later, on July 14, the local court of Islamabad handed over the 9 suspects arrested for the suicide of a 42-year-old citizen who had taken a loan from an online loan application on a 4-day remand to the Cyber Crime Cell of FIA.
