Jakarta. Financing firm PNM denied Tuesday claims that the company provided online loans, let alone illegal ones. 

PNM’s corporate secretary L Dodot Patria Ary said that the company focused on boosting the public’s financial literacy, particularly Indonesian housewives and women through the Mekaar program, which stands for “Fostering a Prosperous Family Economy”. PNM also holds weekly group meetings aimed at providing financial capital, education, and social capital to its members. The financing process for Mekaar products is carried out in groups.

Dodot’s remarks came after some individuals thought PNM Mekaar provided illegal online loans. Indonesia is also facing rampant personal data theft as illegal loan applications rose. 

According to Dodot, these illegal online loan apps steal data directly, putting the users under the impression that they had given permission for the applications to take the data. Many victims also claimed that they had never applied for such loans, but suddenly received a bill to repay those debts. He also warned that these apps tend to emb spyware-like features to steal the data in the form of requests to access SMS and location data, among others.

“They are asking to access your data because [these illegal loan providers] need guarantees so people cannot run away from paying their loans,” Dodot said.

Once given permission, the borrowers can find out the identity of the users, including the contacts of the people whom they usually contact with. Dodot then gave some tips that people should take notes of. First, never install a loan application that is illegal or not registered with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) on your smartphone.

"We always remind the Mekaar customers to take advantage of our financing so that they can manage their finances well. With good management, they will not have the possibility of being caught in illegal loans," Dodot said.

Second, people should also not install applications that are not official or whose developers are not known for certain. The third tip is that when installing an application, always pay attention to what access permissions are requested by the application and whether they are in accordance with its function.

“For example, watch out when a gaming application asks for access to the camera or photo gallery. I don’t think those features are related,” Dodot said, while saying that people should report to the OJK if they already accidentally install illegal loan apps and get their personal data misused.