And now at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, I’m reporting on the three basis that we report on, that is tech, climate change and inclusive economies. Well, for around 10 years, I’ve been reporting on crime in Mexico and human rights. What is your beat? What do you typically report on? So before we launch into this specific investigation that you’ve done on these, lending apps, I’d love to know just a little more about your reporting. To learn more about this phenomenon and Google’s role in it, I spoke to Baptista about the story late last week.īelow is a lightly edited transcript of the discussion.
iFectivo told her contacts she had become a prostitute to pay her debts.Īnd last week, Diana Baptista and Avi Asher-Schapiro, journalists at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, told the story of how a man fell prey to another app operating in Mexico called José Cash, which was also available in the Play Store. After Maria took a loan, agents for the app iFectivo sent her 13-year-old daughter, her cousin, her nieces, and more than a dozen of her other contacts a picture of a nude woman with her face photoshopped on.
Contreras told the story of one woman who fell victim to these schemes named Maria. Receiving as many as 1,000 threatening calls a day, he contemplated suicide.įor the publication Rest of World, Erika Lilian Contreras wrote about these apps in Mexico, including SolPeso, Rápikrédito, Super Peso, LoanLaLa, Money Flash, and iFectivo. Chandran told the story of a housekeeper named Bhumana Prasad who was locked into a cycle of debt after taking an instant loan for 3,000 rupees- just $41- to help pay his rent.
Last year, a Reuters investigation by Rina Chandran found dozens of lending apps in India that appeared to violate Google’s policies against short-term loans. In recent months, press reports have emerged about individuals in multiple countries falling victim to extortion and fraud schemes enabled by often highly rated lending apps downloaded from Google’s Play Store.
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