Getting a bank loan as a working-class Mexican is virtually impossible. So, when María (not her real name, to protect her identity) needed money, she downloaded SolPeso, one of the growing numbers of instant lending apps. To grant her the loan, the app asked not only for her personal and financial data, it also requested access to her phone’s data, including her contacts list.
Even though SolPeso transferred less money than promised, María said the app demanded the original amount plus interest be repaid in a few days. When she couldn’t pay, the lender called and messaged her with threats. She downloaded a second lending app to pay off that first debt, and then even more, including Rápikrédito, Super Peso, LoanLaLa, Money Flash, and iFectivo in the following few weeks. Many of those lending apps joined SolPeso in the harassment. Sometimes she received more than 50 calls and messages daily, containing threats that ranged from saying the lenders would distribute photoshopped photos of María as a thief to threatening to rape and kill her family if she didn’t repay.
“It’s terrifying and depressing,” María said. “They send you extremely aggressive messages that fill you with fear.”
According to the Mexican government’s official financial fraud report platform, María is one of hundreds of users to be doxxed by fraudulent loan apps in Mexico. “It never crosses your mind that [lending apps] will use all that information to…
