Family info in loan sharks’ hands worrying

It is disturbing how loan sharks can get their hands on personal details of debtors and their family members, says Datuk Seri Michael Chong.

These Ah Long also have no qualms about torturing and shaming innocent family members and would go as far as publishing personal information to get debtors to pay up, he said.

So far this year, his department received 140 complaints from victims who said illegal money lenders went after their families to try and extort them for payment, said the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head.

“Many of the victims also wonder how loan sharks could access personal details and family pictures which they put on flyers to shame debtors.”

Chong said 38 of the victims were women and that he had received 28 reports so far this month.

In the latest case, Chong said loan sharks even put up the MyKid number of the victim’s six-year-old daughter.

“I hope the police will also be able to figure out how the loan sharks managed to get such personal details during the investigations,” he said.

Chong’s latest case involves an electrician who is being hounded by loan sharks even though he paid them more than the borrowed amount.

The 38-year-old known only as Kong started out borrowing RM10,000 from 12 different loan sharks in hopes of restarting his business after the movement control order (MCO).

He was slowly paying off his debt and even finished paying off loans with seven of the loan sharks but he wasn’t prepared to face two others who were extorting more money from him.

“One of them threatened to spray my house with red paint and another wanted to burn my house, my car and my family alive if we didn’t give them what they wanted,” he said.

Kong had taken out a RM2,000 loan with a money lender known as Lee and RM1,000 from another who remained anonymous but only received a total of RM900 from both.

He also paid RM16,000 to Lee and RM1,000 to the other but both still demanded more money from him, claiming they were penalties for late payment.

“Lee demanded RM20,000 and the other asked for another RM15,000, and threatened to hurt my family if I didn’t pay them” he said.

Kong said he had prepared funds earlier on to settle his debt but was shocked when they extorted more from him.

“They sent out a flyer calling my parents cheaters, complete with family pictures and personal details,” he said.

Kong said the loan sharks’ tactics had frightened his family and they lodged a police report on the matter.

Chong said he would be following up on the case with the police and also advised borrowers to either go to banks or licensed money lenders if they were in need of funds.