i checked my credit limit but was forced to pay back 3,000 yuan after borrowing 2,000 yuan for 7 days! what should i do if i encounter a black online loan?
2024-09-25
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according to china national radio, many people have recently reported that they took out loans after only checking the loan amount on the online loan platform. some people received 2,000 yuan and had to pay back 3,000 yuan seven days later. many people were forced to borrow money and encountered violent debt collection, and were threatened to collect debts from their relatives. reporters calculated that the annualized interest rate of some borrowers even reached an astonishing 5,000%. what should you do if you encounter a black online loan?
screenshot of text messages provided by mr. quan
"your 9,000 yuan loan application has been successfully received." on august 23, mr. quan from liuzhou, guangxi received such a text message from a person claiming to be jin douhua. mr. quan said that he had not submitted any loan applications before, and he understood that this was obviously a marketing strategy of the online loan company. out of curiosity, and also to verify whether he really had the 9,000 yuan loan limit, he clicked on the link in the text message.
mr. quan: i clicked in to see how much money i could borrow, but i didn't need to borrow money. i clicked in and was asked to download the jindouhua app and fill in the information.
reporter: what information do you need to fill in?
mr. quan: i filled in my work information, my relatives’ phone numbers, my own phone number, as well as my bank card number and id number.
mr. quan believed that all this information would be used to assess his credit status, so he filled in all the information including his bank card number as required, but did not apply for a loan. unexpectedly, one hour later, he received a transfer of 1,700 yuan to his bank card.
mr. quan said: "after filling in the information, it will show an operator authorization. click it and the money will be directly transferred to your bank card in an hour or so. there is no need to sign any contract or anything like that, and i don't know how much money can be lent to you."
mr. quan said that when he was filling in the information, the platform did not prompt any information such as the loan interest rate. after receiving the transfer, jindouhua immediately sent mr. quan another text message saying that he had borrowed 1,700 yuan and needed to repay 2,567 yuan in 7 days.
screenshot of the "golden bean flower app" provided by mr. quan. its announcement mentioned not to search for related content on platforms such as baidu, black cat, weibo, and douyin.
mr. quan was caught off guard by being forced to pay the money, and he wanted to complain, but he searched the jindouhua app but couldn't find a customer service channel. guided by the announcement, he downloaded another app.
mr. quan said: "the jindouhua app said that the money has been transferred to your bank card. if we don't want it, the return will not be counted as repayment. there is no customer service in the jindouhua app. you have to download miyan and add him as a friend before you can get the repayment channel. no matter what you ask, he will not respond to you. you can only go to him to repay the money."
the loan details provided by mr. quan show that the loan claims to have zero interest, but a service fee of 867 yuan is required. this also means that the actual annualized interest rate of this loan reaches 2622.86%, far exceeding the legal range of loan interest rates and is considered usury. faced with the huge interest rate and the potential threat of violent debt collection, mr. quan chose to endure it.
mr. quan said: "if i don't pay it back, the interest will double in one day, and it will double again after the due date. i paid him back on august 30. if i don't pay it back, i will get harassing phone calls at home. he gave me a bank card with a name on it, and i deposited the money into it, just in case he harassed my family. the money was not much anyway."
mr. ai from wuhan, hubei, had a similar experience, but he discovered the clues of the jindouhua app in time, stopped filling in his personal information, and chose to call the police.
mr. ai said: "i went to the police station at the time, and the police said that this was money laundering and illegal, and told me not to pay any attention to it. the police were afraid that i would be defrauded, so they froze several of my cards to prevent me from helping these websites to launder money."
complaint clues on the black cat complaint platform
on the black cat complaint platform, there are 840 complaints about "golden bean flower", and the contents are basically the same, almost all of which are complaints about "deceptive induced loans", "forced loans", "loan sharking", "violent collection", etc. in addition, there are thousands of complaints about other online loan platforms such as "sudibao", "88 installments", and "xinbei optimization", and the contents of the complaints are exactly the same as the above complaints. reporters found that such online loan platforms usually cannot find the operating entity, and transfers and repayments are made through personal bank accounts. once personal information is filled in, you will be forced to take out a loan, and if it is overdue, it will be violently collected. reporters calculated that the annualized interest rate of some borrowers even reached an astonishing 5000%.
the reporter searched through regular channels and found that such apps cannot be found and downloaded, and can only be downloaded through specific links. currently, the links provided by many interviewees are no longer accessible.
in april this year, the people's court of siming district, xiamen city, tried a case of forced loans and violent debt collection, and 35 defendants were sentenced.
wang zhongyi, deputy director of the criminal tribunal of the siming district people's court, said: "most of the victims in our case have not applied for 'how much money do i want to borrow', but just tried to fill in 3,000 yuan, and the platform forced them to lend the money. the loan may only be 1,500 yuan, and the other 1,000 yuan is deducted from you in various fees such as 'head interest', service fees, agency fees, deposits, etc."
wang zhongyi introduced that if the victim fails to repay the principal and interest within the specified period, he will face illegal collection by criminal gangs.
wang zhongyi said: "he (the victim) was constantly harassed by phone calls and text messages from abroad, and these criminals also photoshopped his pictures to threaten and blackmail him."
after investigation, it was found that from october 2022 to may 10, 2023, this criminal gang had lent a total of more than 95 million yuan to more than 33,000 customers, and recovered about 100 million yuan in loans from more than 27,000 customers.
the court held that the defendants, including lou mou, violated state regulations and, without the approval of the regulatory authorities, frequently lent money to unspecified individuals in society for profit, disrupting the order of the financial market. the circumstances were particularly serious and constituted the crime of illegal business operations. the court sentenced the ringleader, lou mou, to five years and three months in prison and a fine of rmb 150,000 at first instance. the remaining defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years and nine months to one year and seven months, and some of the defendants were given suspended sentences.
dong ximiao, chief researcher at china unionpay, said that such activities that illegally provide credit services through online platforms without the approval of financial regulators, using high interest rates, opaque fees, violent debt collection and other means are typical "black online lending" behaviors.
dong ximiao said: "these unqualified black online loan organizations charge opaque fees and set various traps. while implicitly breaking the legal red line, they increase the burden on borrowers, which not only brings risks to borrowers, but also disrupts the normal financial order and affects financial and social stability. regulatory authorities should increase the frequency and intensity of crackdowns on black online loan organizations, establish a practical and long-term mechanism, and better protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers."
dong ximiao said that if there is a need for borrowing, it should be done through formal channels. currently, regulators require loan products to clearly indicate interest rates, and borrowers should carefully read product information and interest rate terms.
dong ximiao said: "financial consumers must choose formal institutions and channels such as commercial banks and consumer finance companies to obtain financial services. do not click on links from unknown sources, do not download and install irregular apps, and do not easily provide sensitive information such as bank account numbers and id numbers. if you are forced to 'pay out money', it is recommended to report to the police in a timely manner and keep relevant evidence."
(at the request of some interviewees, their voices have been processed.)
comprehensive: china national radio (reporter tan chen), china radio international
(source: china national radio wechat official account)
