A WARNING was issued by Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) Executive Director Secretary Gilbert Cruz that online lending apps (OLA) operations are now showing worse ill effects that are far worse than POGO and even online gambling, which is why they all must be banned totally.
Cruz stressed that the evils brought about by OLA are actually worse than those spawned by POGO operations, since OLA directly affects Filipinos themselves and at the rate it is going, OLA might even dislodge online gambling from the top spot when it comes to the ways that lives and society are being destroyed.
Speaking at the”MACHRA Balitaan” held by the Manila City Hall Reporters’ Association (MACHRA) at the Harbor View Restaurant in Manila, Cruz said that OLA, which is also open to all ages via cellphone, promises quick and easy money via a lending scheme that will eventually bury the borrower in neck-deep problems due to the huge interests ranging from 35 to 40 percent.
He said that the lenders get the borrowers’ contact details, email, payslips 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 or group sex.
Cruz also bared that so far, they have recorded at least six OLA-related deaths where the victims took their own lives due to the relentless harassment and shaming they have been subjected to for failure to pay on time the money they had borrowed.
Too, he disclosed that even during the initial stages of their work against POGO and the crimes it has spawned, the surge of LOA and its negative effects were already surfacing fast.
“While the crimes committed by alien POGO individuals were directed against their fellow nationals, in the case of LOA, it is Filipinos against Filipinos, although there is a possibility that the foreigners behind POGO operations may also be behind LOA operations using Filipinos as keyboard warriors, ” Cruz stated.
