Borrowed 8 million VND, turned around and became a debt of more than 160 million VND
More than 5 months ago, Minh Quan started life in Hanoi, but 2 months One and a half years of bad luck led him to unforgettable experiences.
Once from his hometown to Hanoi, Quan had his phone picked up at the bus station. I don’t dare ask my parents for money. The phone was originally an inseparable item, but because Quan had just arrived in the capital, he didn’t have many friends, and if he had them, they weren’t close enough. Quan decided to look for loan apps to temporarily borrow 8 million VND. My plan is to borrow first, then apply for a job and pay off the debt gradually,” Quan said.
Borrowed 8 million but was only disbursed 6 million, not enough money for Quan to buy the machine he needed. He continued to have to borrow a new package of 25 million VND to disburse an additional 2 million VND. The old loan had not yet been completed, but the new loan continuously accumulated interest. Initially, Quan borrowed at an interest rate of 33%/year, but for some reason The amount of money from the app “bulges up” every time. Quan continues to borrow from another app to pay for this app. The vicious circle of debt continues until Quan borrows from 5 different black credit apps “Initially, it was 8 million, but I don’t understand why it ended up being more than 160 million VND in debt,” Quan said.
“Every morning I wake up and realize I have to earn more money to pay for the apps. The lender also continuously called and threatened to notify his family and colleagues to collect the debt. I don’t eat well and don’t dare sleep. My salary is only about 10 million VND. How can I ever pay it back?” Quan said.
Panic and anxiety caused Quan to continuously make wrong decisions. Searching on social networks, Quan found groups teaching how to “clear” debt from black credit apps and saw that many people had succeeded.
“I decided to quit my current job and suffer humiliation and debt. Despite the reputation of extorting money by changing phone numbers,” Quan said bitterly. “I heard that black credit apps lend too much money beyond the legal regulations. They won’t dare report to the police because they themselves still violate the law, so I’m not afraid,” Quan said.
The “money” “Boi” before even taught that if you fail anyway, it’s best to borrow more and then “burst once and at least get rid of some of the capital, no matter how much or how much”. Distressed because he had to pay a large amount of loan interest, Quan decided to try to borrow an additional 20 million VND to make up for what he had lost before “disappearing”.
According to a survey by Dan Tri On social networks, groups teaching how to break up black credit debt are popping up more and more. In some apps, the number of members reaches hundreds of thousands of people. Every day on such groups, dozens of articles sharing experiences of debt default are posted.
Need to borrow capital quickly to invest in virtual currency Xuan Bach also sought Go to the loan app. He planned to borrow and wait to invest enough capital and interest to gradually repay the debt, but the cryptocurrency market plummeted, causing him to lose his ability to repay the debt.
“Borrowing 60 million VND, the app says you have to pay interest. 30 million VND. In fact, the interest rate is high, but I calculate that this 60 million investment will yield 4 or 5 times the profit. If you are lucky and earn a few hundred million, then having to pay 30 million VND is normal. I don’t expect the market to collapse ” Bach recalls.
“I don’t know how to make money with digital money stock are all in trouble and I have no ability to do business. Now I can earn 8-9 million dong a month, who knows when “I can only pay,” Bach said.
Initially, Bach paid more than 20 million VND. However, the borrower kept calling “terrorists” when he had not yet managed to get the money. At its peak, these people call their wives and relatives to threaten them.
The common form of black credit is borrowing through a phone app or website. If borrowing through the app, users must open access rights on their personal phone such as Google sync message contacts and call history. If you borrow through a website, you will have to leave a link to your own social networking sites on zalo… If you don’t pay when the due date arrives, the debt collection group will access the contact list to “terrorize” the borrower’s relatives. asking for money.
“Either way, it would be humiliating, so I decided to change my number and blow up the debt,” Bach said. Bach told his relatives not to answer strange numbers on social networks. The information is only for friends to see.
“In the past, the lender threw printed paper advertising my debt all over the street near my house. “Pay it back in full for 3 months and then throw away the SIM card. The lender is so bored that it’s gone,” account owner Ngoc Minh Phan shared on a group teaching how to clear debt with 70,000 members.
Blooming providing debt evasion services
In addition, thanks to simple loan methods, black credit is a common place labour comes to borrow money when not eligible for formal loans. But also because of this point, many people invite each other to borrow money to get out of debt and teach each other how to “get rid” of money. On credit groups, debtors invite each other to use virtual sim cards to borrow money to get through…
Hoang Manh, working in Thai Nguyen, was told by a friend that he had a credit app loan worth nearly 13 million VND. Using the excuse that black credit was already illegal, not to mention “it was difficult to borrow money and yet charged such high interest”, Manh also tried to use a virtual sim card to borrow another 9 million VND and escaped successfully.
Not only is loan defaulting flourishing, many individuals even provide debt evasion services. Hoang Duy, a person with experience “extorting” money, opened a debt support service for 500,000 VND/month. Specifically, Duy receives calls from terrorists on behalf of the borrower and reassures the debtor’s family by impersonating the switchboard.
Not only on credit debt relief training groups, there are also many other people opening similar services with fees ranging from 300,000-500,000 VND/person. These posts often receive a lot of responses and inquiries from debtors who are tired of being bombarded with dozens of phone calls every day.
Is it illegal to lend at high interest rates to increase debt?
Talk with Dan Tri lawyer Pham Ngoc Hai Deputy Director Director of the Central Thang Long Legal Consulting Center of the Vietnam Bar Association said that both acts of high-interest lending by black credit apps and debt explosion, if detected, can be handled according to the provisions of the Law. law.
According to civil law, the loan interest rate is agreed upon by the parties but must not exceed 20%/year. The interest rate that exceeds the limit will not be effective.
By lending at such a high interest rate, the lender has violated Clause 4, Article 12 of Decree 144/2021 with the behavior: “No register for investment profession business There are conditions of security and order that lend money with or without pledging assets, but the loan interest rate exceeds the interest rate prescribed by the Civil Code. The lender may be fined from 10-20 million VND.
In addition, the lender may also be prosecuted for criminal liability for the crime of “Lending high interest rates in civil transactions” If lending at an interest rate 5 times or more of the highest interest rate according to the provisions of the Civil Code and violating one of the factors such as illegal profits of 30 million VND or more; Illegal profits of less than 30 million VND have been administratively sanctioned or have been convicted of this crime but have not had their criminal record erased.
If criminally prosecuted, the violator can be fined from 50 million VND to 1 billion VND or be subject to non-custodial reform for up to 3 years or be imprisoned from 6 months to 3 years.
< p>Regarding people intentionally borrowing too much money, according to lawyer Pham Ngoc Hai, it is also a violation of the law.
Specifically, when a person intentionally borrows to proactively waste money from the lender, this is a sign. Signs of the crime “abuse of trust to appropriate property” according to Article 175 of the Penal Code: “Borrowing and renting property from others or receiving property from others in the form of contracts and then using fraudulent tricks.” deceitfully appropriated that property or when it was time to return the property, even though he had the ability, but deliberately did not pay.”
He said that the amount appropriated was only 4 million VND, which was a violation. crime or less than 4 million VND, but have been administratively sanctioned for this act or have committed a number of property appropriation crimes that have not yet had their criminal records erased, they are also eligible to commit a crime.
“This is a more serious crime than lending at high interest rates,” the lawyer said. Accordingly, the penalty frame for this crime is at least non-custodial reform for up to 3 years or imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years and maximum possible imprisonment of up to 20 years.
“If you borrow If the interest rate is too high, you can ask the court to declare it invalid. If the interest rate exceeds the limit allowed by law, the interest burden will be more limited,” the lawyer advised.
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