‘Bank agents’ now offering express bank loans
KUALA LUMPUR: Smartly dressed and claiming to be bank agents, these individuals will offer ‘express’ loans which supposedly could be received within 20 minute after approval from the bank.
This is the tactic being used by a syndicate believed to be preying on victims around banks in the Klang Valley in deceiving them into handing over their money which they claim are for administrative costs.
A victim who only wanted to be known as Nurul, 32, said in May this year she met a man who offered her a loan of RM20,000 while she was in a bank in Subang near here.
She said after several meetings, the man contacted her to say that her loan had been approved and would be deposited into her bank account within 20 minutes.
“The man then asked me to pay RM1,000 for legal fees and after I transferred the money into an account, he asked for another RM1,200 as payment for GST,” she told Bernama.
However Nurul a supervisor in a private company said she did not receive any loan but was instead made to pay more fees which until early June accumulated to about RM17,000.
“I borrowed the amount from loan sharks with the hope I would get the loan immediately, but until today I received nothing,” said the mother of three.
Nurul, who lodged a report at Puchong Jaya police station on July 7, said she was now living in fear because she had been receiving threats from the loan sharks.
Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur Consumer Safety Association ( PKP) president Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi said the association had received more than 20 complaints on nonexistent loans from June to July involving various groups including professionals.
According to him, the complaints were received from victims aged 25 to 60 years who were pressed for loans for various purposes.
Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur Commercial Crime Investigation Department head, ACP Mohd Luthfi Ismail Abdullah said 137 of such cases with losses of RM1.3 million were reported from January to June this year.
He said this was an increase from the corresponding period last year which saw 31 cases involving RM694,492 in losses.
He said apart from masquerading as bank agents, the syndicate also advertised their money lending facilities through Facebook and brochures by offering much easier terms as compared to banks and financial institutions.
“They also offer loans to those who have been blacklisted by the banks and with very little balance shown on their salary slips,” he said. — Bernama