Online loan sharks are targeting Cambodian women desperate to keep their businesses afloat and families fed, victims say, charging illegal interest rates of up to 80 per cent a month to borrow a few hundred dollars – and then demanding nude images as collateral.
Vanna, a mother of three, lost her savings during the coronavirus pandemic trying to service pre-existing loans she took out to open her restaurant in southern Kampot.
Drowning in debt and with her restaurant closed, the 37-year-old was pulled in by a Facebook ad by ‘Loanly Internet’, which offered her US$50 as a first-time client in a time of crisis.
