Nowadays in modern world, almost everything is digitalized and technology is so well developed that each and everything is on fingertips but at the same time, it is the most useful source for criminals and a lot of spammers are ruining others life by utilizing this technology in wrong way. No doubt, these spammers are masters and so skillful but they are investing their skills to become millionaire in a short period of time by doing illegal activities. However, they can earn the same or more by working in a right direction.
I would like to share one of my story which gives me a memorable lesson and it should be spread so others can avoid doing the same mistakes. Usually, we do install many of new apps in our cell phones without knowing their authenticity and legitimacy and we do accept their terms and conditions without even reading a single clause. In many of the Apps, we do allow and give them permission to use our storage data and even contact details. Not long time ago, I installed an app for some loan purpose and they granted me some loan which I returned them in couple of months but later, I received few calls from them that I have not returned the total amount yet. I was shocked to hear that and tried to resolve the issue but they were not helping instead were threatening me that if I wont return them the total amount, they will use alternate ways to do the same.
I didn’t give importance to their message and moved on. Later on, I received a call from my Uncle who told me that he received a call from some company who stated that I have taken loan and not returned yet, if you could return the money on behalf of him. They even know the name of my Uncle and were so real that my Uncle believed them but still didn’t transferred any amount and thought of checking with me first. I told him that it was fake and its not true. But this thing stun me badly. I was worried a lot. Then I received calls from my friends and few other relatives in the same case. I was brainless, unable to think much and then contacted the company to stop this non sense and blackmailing. They said its just the start and you will be having a lot of trouble if you will not listen to us. this is open blackmailing now. I figured that they got my contact list with names on it so they know whom they are calling. They even called my Father. The main problem was those people who will not call me back and if they believe them, that will be bad impact on my image and on my reputation. I was terribly in pain.
It was the first stage, second phase was worst. They started sharing my pictures and fake message to my contacts asking them to send money as if I am asking their help for my loan. Turning their fake story into real. I was getting to know about it from only those people who were telling me, don’t know about others who just ignored or had negative thoughts about me. unwillingly, I had to return the amount to them. they stopped doing it for a week but then again started the same and now, they called me and said we want double or else we will get more worst. They had captured me in their trap and I was hopeless. Then I searched about it on Google and youtube and came to know that many innocent people did suicide because of this pressure and blackmailing. I was running through the same stage. It was like my life has been hacked. They were doing dirty works on my pictures and shared with my contact list. I was out of my mind and started behaving crazy, not in my senses with all of this tension.
Then one of my friend advised me to relax and ignore them. my biggest mistake was returning them the money again where they confirmed me as a fool and they took me as an easy target. Now, if you receive any call, just tell them that I don’t have much money, if you hacked everything, you should have known my account balance, I am not a rich guy. He also advised me to send a text message and WhatsApp message to all on my contact list that I am going through this pain because of digital blackmailing and they were pretending to be me by sending fake messages so please avoid those fake messages and do not believe or send money on those accounts. This worked well for me. I got condolence response from many of my contact list and most of them encouraged me to fight against them. Well, it is useless because Cyber Crimes is not going to catch these companies without any evidence or maybe they are all mixed in and doing together. You cannot believe them. So, I just ignored their calls and ignored everything for a month. Thank God, finally they left me alone and ran away to catch other fools around. This was a painful story but it really gives me a good lesson to learn and apply for my future life. This is a true story of my friend and honestly speaking, I was the one who gave him this advice which finally worked for him to get rid of those blackmailers.