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MEXICO CITY: Unemployed and tempted by the above-average salary, 28-year-old Karen applied to work at a call center for Mexican loan app CashBox<\/a> - unaware that her job would be to threaten and intimidate anyone who failed to pay up on time.
In the five days she lasted in the job, bosses ordered her to harass clients as soon as they missed a repayment by mining their contact lists, text messages and pictures, which the app had access to - in violation of Mexico's privacy law.
\"Many of us in the call center were scared and didn't even know if what we were doing was legal,\" Karen told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, asking to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisals.
\"They take advantage of people in need of a job,\" she said, adding that workers were routinely bullied by supervisors, made to work unpaid overtime and given no proper job contracts.
CashBox<\/a> did not respond to requests for comment.
In August, the Thomson Reuters Foundation found that it was among 29 loan apps with millions of downloads in the Google Play Store<\/a> that have been reported to authorities for unscrupulous lending practices - such as sky-high interest rates and commissions - and illegal debt collection tactics.
These ranged from threatening phone calls and text messages to distributing among the client's contacts photographs that had been edited into explicit images.
Last month, police in Mexico City raided seven call centers that served more than 90 loan apps including CashBox, making 27 arrests and seizing hundreds of phones, computers and SIM cards used for customer extortion.
After the raids, the capital's mayor Claudia Sheinbaum urged job seekers to shun the scam call centers, saying \"it's a crime to participate in any sort of extortion\".
The workers tasked with carrying out the apps' heavy-handed tactics are mostly young people drawn into the call centers because they have few employment options, four former employees said.
Six out of 10 Mexicans aged 15 to 25 are currently unemployed, while half of those in the labor force earn the minimum wage, forcing many to take whatever job they can find, according to a recent report from IMCO, a think-tank.
ABUSE ON WHATSAPP<\/a><\/strong>
After Karen lost a job in construction shortly before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, her friend recommended the call center of CashBox, which was looking for debt collection agents.
The same day she went for the interview, Karen was told she was hired and could start working, but she was not give a contract.
\"It struck me as very odd right away, they didn't even ask for my ID or tax information,\" said Karen, who dropped out of law school for lack of money and has been doing odd jobs since.
As soon as she started work, she was told to watch how her co-workers verbally abused clients during WhatsApp<\/a> calls.
\"The supervisor would tell us to intimidate the clients by saying we'd go looking for them to beat them up, or that something very bad would happen to them,\" she recalled.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation showed borrowers granted the apps permission to access personal information stored on their phones due to unclear privacy policies, many of which breach Mexican legislation.
Police said in August they had received more than 15,000 complaints related to 679 fraudulent loan apps and websites operating in Mexico, of which 311 are still active. Many of the complaints related to the use of personal data.
CashBox is still available on the Google Play Store<\/a>, with more than a million downloads.
HIGH-SCHOOL DROPOUTS<\/strong>
Recruiters for the loan apps being investigated by Mexican police advertise \"phone executive\" roles on Facebook<\/a> for high-school dropouts or people with middle-school education. The Facebook<\/a> groups have tens of thousands of members.
The roles, open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 40, offer immediate hiring and monthly salaries of more than 6,000 Mexican pesos (about $300), some 2,000 pesos more than Mexico's minimum wage.
But former call center collection agents said they received no formal employment benefits such as social security, were usually paid in cash and faced harsh working conditions.
\"The office was horrible, with improvised wooden tables and no computers to work on. Everything was done from our own cellphones,\" said Enrique Hernandez, 30, who has worked in three call centers since September 2021.
\"It made me uncomfortable to use my phone number, so I brought another phone I rarely used,\" he said, adding that he needed the work to fund his studies.
Agents were also forced to use their personal phones to edit clients' photographs and add captions such as \"Wanted for pedophilia\", threatening to send the doctored images to close contacts to pressure them into paying.
\"We specifically targeted contact names like Mom, Dad or Baby,\" said Hernandez.
In December 2021, Hernandez found a new job in another scam call center which collected money for loan apps Me Prestamos, Super Prestamo, and Super Pago, all of which have been reported for extortion and fraud.
None of the apps are still active on the Google Play Store, and no contact information could be found.
Karen and Hernandez said they left their jobs due to the labor irregularities and concerns about the legality of what they were doing. Both now work in formal call centers serving banks.
\"It's a bad way to earn easy money,\" said Karen of the loan app call centers. \"I wouldn't advise anybody to do it.\"
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墨西哥的诈骗贷款应用程序作为执法者诱捕年轻工人
她持续了五天的工作,老板命令她去骚扰客户就错过了还款通过挖掘他们的联系人列表,短信和照片,应用程序可以访问——墨西哥的违反隐私法。
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墨西哥城:失业和诱惑的高于平均水平的工资,28岁的墨西哥凯伦在呼叫中心工作申请贷款程序钱箱——不知道她的工作是威胁和恐吓的人未能按时支付。
她持续了五天的工作,老板命令她去骚扰客户就错过了还款通过挖掘他们的联系人列表,短信和照片,应用程序可以访问——墨西哥的违反隐私法。
“我们中的许多人在呼叫中心是害怕,甚至不知道我们在做什么是合法的,”凯伦·汤森路透基金会要求使用假名害怕报复。
“他们利用人们的需要一份工作,”她说,并补充说工人被上司经常被欺负,无偿加班,没有合适的工作合同。
钱箱没有回应记者的置评请求。
8月,汤森路透基金会发现,它是在29日贷款与数以百万计的下载应用程序谷歌播放存储已经报告给当局肆无忌惮的贷款行为,如极高的利率和佣金,和非法讨债的策略。
这些范围从威胁电话和短信分发客户联系人的照片被编辑成明确的图像。
上个月,墨西哥警方突袭了七个呼叫中心,超过90的贷款应用程序包括钱箱,27日逮捕和扣押数百个手机,电脑和SIM卡用于客户勒索。
袭击之后,首都的市长克劳迪娅Sheinbaum敦促求职者避开骗局呼叫中心,说“这是一个犯罪参与任何形式的敲诈”。
工人负责执行应用程序的强硬策略大多是年轻人卷入呼叫中心,因为他们几乎没有就业选择,四名前雇员说。
6个15到25岁的墨西哥人10个目前失业,而一半的劳动力赚取最低工资,迫使许多可以找到的任何工作,如最近的一份报告显示,一个智库。
上的虐待WHATSAPP
凯伦失业后建设COVID-19大流行开始前不久,她的朋友推荐钱箱的呼叫中心,寻找债务收集代理。
当天她去面试,凯伦告诉她雇佣了,可以开始工作,但是她不给一份合同。
“这给我的印象是非常奇怪的,他们甚至不要求我的ID或税务信息,”凯伦说,他从法学院退学缺钱和以来一直在打零工。
一旦她开始工作时,她被告知同事辱骂客户在观察她WhatsApp调用。
”管理员会告诉我们恐吓客户说我们会去找他们击败他们,或者会有一些非常糟糕的事情发生在他们,”她回忆道。
汤森路透基金会调查显示借款人授予应用程序权限访问个人信息存储在手机由于不清楚隐私政策,其中许多违反墨西哥立法。
警方说,他们已经收到超过15000年8月投诉679诈骗贷款相关应用程序和网站运营在墨西哥,其中311仍然活跃。许多投诉相关的个人数据的使用。
钱箱仍然可用谷歌播放存储,有超过一百万次下载。
高中辍学
招聘人员的贷款应用程序被墨西哥警方调查宣传“电话执行”的角色脸谱网高中辍学或人与中学教育。的脸谱网组织成千上万的成员。
的角色,向任何人开放18岁至40岁之间的,提供直接的雇佣和每月的工资超过6000墨西哥比索(约合300美元),大约有2000墨西哥比索以上的最低工资。
但前呼叫中心收集代理说他们没有收到正式就业社保等福利,通常以现金形式发放,面临严酷的工作条件。
“办公室是可怕的,简易的木制桌子,没有电脑。一切都从自己的手机,“恩里克·埃尔南德斯说,30岁,2021年9月以来已经在三个呼叫中心工作。
“它让我不舒服使用我的电话号码,所以我带了另一个电话我很少使用,”他说,补充说他需要为他的研究工作。
代理也被迫使用个人手机编辑客户的照片和添加标题,如“通缉恋童癖”,威胁要把篡改图像密切接触者成支付压力。
“我们特别有针对性的联系的名字像妈妈,爸爸或婴儿,”赫尔南德斯说。
2021年12月,埃尔南德斯找到了一份新工作在另一个骗局呼叫中心收集资金贷款应用程序我Prestamos,超级Prestamo,和超级帕果-帕果,所有这些已报告的勒索和欺诈行为。
没有应用程序仍活跃在谷歌商店,和联系信息无法被发现。
凯伦和埃尔南德斯说,他们离开他们的工作由于劳动违规行为和合法性的担忧他们在做什么。现在工作在正式银行呼叫中心服务。
“这是一个糟糕的方式挣钱容易,”凯伦说贷款程序呼叫中心。“我不会建议任何人去做。”
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