Loan scam on Telegram: Young woman from the south robbed and blackmailed
A young woman who requested a 24,000 shekel loan via Telegram was robbed by two suspects immediately after withdrawing the cash. The lender is now blackmailing the victim, demanding repayment of the stolen funds.
A young woman from southern Israel has fallen victim to a criminal scheme after seeking a loan through a Telegram group. After requesting 24,000 shekels, she was instructed by a group administrator to withdraw the cash from a bank branch using a cardless withdrawal code. Under their agreement, she was to keep 10,000 shekels and transfer the remainder to another individual.
"I wanted a loan, and they told me to contact someone on Telegram, assuring me it was a standard procedure," the victim recounted to police.
Immediately after she withdrew the cash from an ATM, two suspects approached her. One of them engaged in a physical struggle with her, eventually managing to forcibly take the entire 24,000 shekels.
"Suddenly two people came up to me and demanded the money. I asked, 'What money?' They said, 'The money you just withdrew.' I tried to resist, but they just took the 24,000 from my pocket," the victim described.
Following the robbery, the individual who arranged the loan contacted the woman and demanded she repay the full amount, claiming she failed to transfer the funds as agreed. The victim is now facing what appears to be a calculated blackmail attempt.
Yaakov Hershkovitz, an investigator at the Kiryat Gat police station, urged the public to exercise extreme caution: "We call on the public to be vigilant and act cautiously when performing transactions or requesting loans from unknown entities, especially through social media."
Police and the Capital Markets Authority warn that this is not an isolated incident. Dozens of groups on Telegram are currently offering loans to individuals with restricted bank accounts and even to minors.
"We are seeing this phenomenon expand significantly in recent years," explained Eli Tubul, director of the regulated financial services division at the Capital Markets Authority. Estimates suggest that the black market for loans in Israel turns over hundreds of millions of shekels annually, posing a severe danger to citizens who seek funds through unregulated channels.
