Extortion grows due to online loan applications

Extortion through online loan applications is a serious problem in Colombia and in many other countries around the world. Many people have been victims of extortionists who use personal information to intimidate and blackmail their victims.

In Colombia, online loan applications have become very popular in recent years. These apps allow people to get quick and easy loans without having to meet traditional bank loan requirements, such as having a strong credit history or providing collateral. Although these apps can be a short-term solution for people in urgent need of money, they have also led to a number of problems, including harassment and extortion.

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People who use these apps often find themselves in difficult financial situations and may not have the resources to repay their loans. When they can't pay, lenders often resort to intimidation and extortion tactics to get their money back. People caught in this situation may be forced to pay large sums of money to extortionists or face the consequences of having personal or private information disclosed.

One of the most worrying cases is that of Sofia, who had never applied for a loan online and yet found herself trapped in an extortion network. One day, she received a phone call from someone claiming that she owed $150,000 to an online loan application. The caller told her that if she did not pay, the amount she owed would increase to $200,000 due to her interest. Sofia refused to pay and thought it was a simple phone scam, but the person who called her was not willing to let her go so easily.

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Shortly after the phone call, Sofia received an intimate photo on WhatsApp that showed her with her husband. The person who called her had obtained this photograph somehow and was using it to extort money from her. The threat was clear: if she did not pay the amount requested, the photo would be disclosed to her contacts and posted on social media. Afraid of the consequences, Sofia herself paid the amount requested, but the extortion did not end there.

After paying the initial amount, Sofia received regular calls forcing her to pay more and more money. On one occasion, she was required to pay her $600,000. As the amount of money she was asked for increased, so did the intensity of the threats. The extortionists often called Sofia and harassed her through text messages and emails. They even started calling her family and friends to collect the money she owed.

Finally, they asked Sofia for 2 million pesos and she got tired of the extortion and decided that she couldn't pay more money. The extortionists responded by disclosing her intimate photograph to her contacts and on social media.

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This situation damaged her life, since relatives and acquaintances saw her intimate photos of her, even her children.

Having no more to lose, Sofia went to report her extortion case to the Fiscalía and she learned that her first mistake was having paid the first extortion, since the extortionists are going to want much more.

The National Police and the Prosecutor's Office recommend not giving up the extortion before, since paying for not disseminating the photos is giving the extortionist more psychological and monetary power, and he will always want more money, in the end he will leave you bankrupt and with the boleteadas photos. The call is to report these cases, the police have the best professionals, investigators and technological equipment to catch these extortionists.