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| Photo of the paint-smeared flat sent to Girlie's employer |
A Filipina domestic helper is going through severe mental stress after she received threatening messages from an unknown person, saying she needed to repay a loan she supposedly took from a trading and lending company in Hong Kong - or be humiliated publicly.
The harassment escalated Saturday, when her employer
was sent a picture of a flat splashed with red paint on the outside, a classic debt-collection
strategy by triads.
What Girlie (not her real name) said was most perplexing was that she never took out a loan from the company named by the collector, and never voluntarily shared all her personal information with anyone, much less a stranger..”
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The threatening messages were first sent to her on
July 30 via messenger by someone using the account name “Jemma Athena”. The
message read, “Good day, Miss ----. This is from --- (lending company). I’m
looking for your payment. I need your payment today.”
Then ominously, the message sender said that her warrant
of arrest would be issued soon, then listed down her complete home address in
the Philippines. Girlie hastily blocked the account.
However, her employer was then contacted on WhatsApp
by the collector, who sent a message in Chinese, saying “Hello boss, your
worker ----- has borrowed money from my company and the due date is 3 days
late. Total 6800.”
The number used was 60784543, and the message was accompanied by photos of Girlie’s HKID card, employment contract, and a video of her talking about a loan.
“Na stress ako kasi, paano nakuha yung documents ko,” said Girlie. (I was stressed out, how did he get hold of my documents?)
But then she said she noticed that someone had managed
to open her WhatsApp account, and link it to another number, 56092176. (Nobody picks up the call on either number).
This led Girlie to conclude that her WhatsApp
account had been hacked, and all the photos she had stored in her phone, stolen
by the hacker or hackers.
After her employer received the photo of the flat
splashed with red paint, she and her helper decided to report the incidents to
the police immediately.
Yesterday, Girlie said she decided to file a similar
report with the Philippine Consulate. She said she wants her fellow Filipinos
to be careful in liking or subscribing to certain sites on Facebook, and never
click on a link sent to them by strangers.
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| Collector named 'James' sends text message warning Girlie of public humiliation |
Her story calls to mind an advisory addressed to domestic workers and posted by the Consulate in June, telling them not to give any personal details or share photos of their employers and their houses.
The advisory hinted that the helpers had shared with
online money lenders not only the personal details of their employers, but also
photos. The helpers were also sent a video in which they acknowledged taking
out a loan from the company.
The pro-Beijing political party, Democratic Alliance
for the Betterment and Progress of Hong
Kong, later held a press conference to expose a scam where employers were
blackmailed by debt collectors into repaying money supposedly borrowed by their
helpers.
The DAB said
around 20 employers had told them their
helpers were tricked into providing personal information while filling out
online forms to inquire about loans.
Part of the inquiry required the helpers to provide
their employer’s personal details and photos, as well as their bank account
information.
The helpers’ bank accounts were then credited with money they did not ask for, with instructions for them to repay at interest rates way above what is legal. When the helpers refused to pay up, their employers were told that AI-generated pornographic photos of them would be published unless they gave in to the demands.
In some cases, the employers’ offices were splashed with red paint..
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