Many people have complained about dozens of calls every day from creditors who urge them to pay debts for relatives who borrowed money via apps.

Most of the loans have exorbitant interest of up to 4.4 percent per day, or 30.8 percent per week, 132 percent per month and 1,600 percent per annum.

All of the transactions between lenders and borrowers are made via internet and mobile phone. If borrowers don’t pay debts on schedule, lenders call the relatives of borrowers to insult them and force them to pay the debts.

Hang N., director of a business, told VietNamNet that she has been bombarded with calls from a credit group which lent money to the mother of her worker.

“The debt collectors use automatic switchboard which makes one call every minute for one day long. Later, they called directly and intimidated me. This has affected my life and work a lot,” she complained.

H.L, a worker at the same company, is also a victim of a black credit group. She receives calls continuously from an automatic switchboard and debt collection officers. The group also has shown her mobile phone number on many forums, including one selling an erectile dysfunction drug.

“I have turned on the feature of preventing automatic calls on my iPhone, but I cannot prevent the calls from the forum selling ED drug,” she said.

Pham Xuan said he borrowed VND30 million from a credit app, but he received VND19.5 million. Later, the lender called and intimidated his friends and relatives asking them to pay VND160 million.

Black credit apps not only call individuals who are relatives of borrowers but also leaders of the localities where borrowers live.

Nguyen Tien Tha, Chair of Minh Quang commune in Ba Vi district, said a man in the commune borrowed VND50 million and then escaped. The lender then made dozens of threatening calls a day to all the commune’s leaders.

“Within a short time during midday, they called me 22 times. They even called several times at night. They call from many different subscription numbers to say that a citizen of the commune borrowed VND50 million and ran away,” he said.

“The callers ask the commune’s leaders to handle the case, and if not, they will be jointly liable in this case. They accessed the Hanoi information portal to find our phone numbers,” he said, adding that the leaders sometimes have to turn off their phones.

Why did black credit return?

In late 2019 and early 2020, many Chinese people came to Vietnam to provide loans under the disguised P2P mode. They hired Vietnamese people to set up businesses under Vietnamese names, lent money and hired Vietnamese underworld types to collect debts.

At that time, Nguyen Hoa Binh, Chair of Nexttech, estimated that there were 60-70 Chinese businesses coming to Vietnam to lend money online and the interest rates were very high.

Later, the police gathered strength to suppress the criminals which helped to decrease black credit activities. Chief of MPS (Ministry of Public Security) Secretariat To An Xo then said black credit was a type of crime always in the sights of anti-crime agencies, especially criminal police and local police. Therefore, many apps left the market quietly.

However, the apps returned as Tet holiday neared. They lend money at exorbitant interest rates and use every possible means to collect debts.

Le Minh Hai, CEO of Tienngay.vn, said that black creditors are coming back.

“They chase debtors. These black credit apps use tracking software from Facebook and from contact phone numbers to find borrowers,” he said.

Tran Viet Vinh, CEO of Fiin Credit, which provides P2P loans, said the black credit apps entice people to install their apps and borrow money online. The apps are installed with malware to steal information, including contact lists and other ‘sensitive’ content, from borrowers’ smartphones.

The lenders force borrowers to pay an amount that is much higher than the loans they provide, or they call and send messages with bad content to borrowers' relatives and friends.

“Installing malware to steal information and forcing clients to pay big amounts of money are really very serious problems,” he said. “People need to be on high alert about the increasingly sophisticated tricks by black creditors, and the media should warn people about the risks.” 

Thai Khang

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