Are loan applications really dangerous?

 In these times, data collection by third parties is often an unpleasant adventure. Unauthorized sales calls, fraud, kidnapping and extortion are the order of the day; Much of the information used to commit these crimes is obtained from different means where our data is stored: the telephone company, electricity, gas, banks, etc. It should not surprise us that two years ago on the Amazon platform, the electoral roll that was in possession of the Movimiento Ciudadano party was offered.

Since 2020, Fintech companies (technological finance companies) have grown by 50% in Mexico according to CONDUSEF data. Most of these companies are dedicated to granting credit online, some other investments or digital bank accounts. Due to the health crisis caused by COVID-19, the loss of jobs and other factors, the request for credit from these companies increased exponentially.

Companies without any regulation, creation of mobile applications that supposedly grant loans with only the INE credential; However, these applications do not grant any loan, they only save the registered data to be able to exploit or sell them. This has become a big problem, and the Google Play store has not made any kind of effort to sanction these apps.

HOW DO THE LOAN APPS WORK?

Apparently its function is simple: Register your data, upload photos of an ID and a self-portrait, with this the loan app evaluates the request.

When registering the data, these applications request something very relevant, two contacts as a reference, which may seem normal; but by giving that permission to the app, it is given access to the entire phonebook.

So to recap, the application will have all our personal information, including a photo and the number of our contacts.

Now, the problem is the following: With this data, records are generated, which are later compared with other databases to have complete files; what they do with these bases is exchange them, or in the worst case, sell them to criminals who use them for extortion.

Only 18% of these companies are regulated and deliver the loans they offer, and the other 82% only collect data. With respect to those who deliver the credits, they do so at impossible-to-pay interests, and when this happens, it is when they use the contacts saved in the application to call them and do collection work.

These applications have the common denominator of advertising on social networks and games found on them. On the CONDUSEF website you can find the list of Fintech companies that are authorized to grant credits online; but also, there is a list of fraudulent companies and applications.