Shaming the shamers

“Fast Cash Global Lending Inc., Unipeso Lending Company Inc., and Fynamics Lending Inc. were ordered by the NPC to explain allegations of harassment.

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) led by Commissioner Raymund Liboro has now gone on the offensive against online lending companies who violated the law by harassing clients.

In their 4 October statement, the NPC mentioned 67 unlisted operators who had multiple privacy complaints.

According to the NPC, these companies were difficult to locate in their listed business addresses and even the identity of their executives were also not easily available. The NPC published the public summons against the board of directors of these companies which include Cashalo, Megaloan, Pesos.ph and Online Loans Pilipinas.

Earlier, Fast Cash Global Lending Inc., Unipeso Lending Company Inc. and Fynamics Lending Inc. were ordered by the NPC to explain allegations of harassment. Victims accused online companies of being able to access their phonebooks and calling their contacts.

Other countries have also similar experiences against unethical online lending. Some victims have already committed suicide and others have resigned due to embarrassment. A news report interviewed a female victim who claimed that even her doctor received a call so she would be forced to pay her debt.

More extreme forms of harassment from lending apps were also revealed. These companies would go as far as posting personal and sensitive information of their clients on various social media platforms.

Meanwhile, hacking is also a perennial problem in the country. Hackers would target not only ordinary people but celebrities as well.

One of their latest victims was Kris Bernal of GMA-7. Last month, her Instagram (IG), E-mail and Twitter were hacked. She was able to recover her IG account but failed to retrieve her E-mail and Twitter back.

Bernal posted on her IG about the incident. She said that the hacking happened around between 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. She was getting security codes after the hackers tried to access her accounts multiple times. She also said that these criminals were calling her on WhatsApp.

Ms. Bernal said she was worried that the hackers would ask money from her friends and fans. I remember the days when social media was not as popular as it is. Hackers would intrude into the Yahoo accounts of their victims and send out a distress email asking the contacts to send money.

The e-mail would usually contain made-up stories of being unable to fly to Philippines after a supposed encounter with robbers in some European country where theft is normal. In Bernal’s case, the hackers also tried to extort money from her so they could return the accounts.

While her e-mail and Twitter are still being held hostage, Ms. Bernal did the right thing by not answering calls from the hackers.

They would have asked for more than just money and this does not guarantee that her private photos and other information would not be sold to online syndicates. It was also a good decision to vlog her experience so her fans and contacts would be warned not to communicate with individuals pretending to be her online.