Scammers posing as loan shark “managers” are targeting borrowers who have just lodged police reports about harassment, offering fake debt settlements at a discount.
At a press conference on Friday (Aug 15), MCA Public Services and Complaints Bureau deputy chief Ivan Tan said after studying the 11 cases thoroughly, his team could only determine two possibilities, either it being a conspiracy between the scammer and the loan shark, or an inside job.
00:00Scammers are posing as managers of loan sharks to trick debtors into paying off their debts at a supposed discount.
00:08MCA Public Services and Complaints Bureau Chief Datuk Sri Michael Chong said his bureau has received 11 such complaints,
00:15all involving borrowers who had just lodged police reports about harassment from loan sharks.
00:20All the cases, 11 cases are the same, same motor sovereignty, that after the police report, some as early as one and a half hour or one day,
00:37the complainant who lost the police report will receive phone call.
00:45And when they receive the phone call, the caller said, he is the manager, manager of the loan which they reported.
00:58He said the scammers would tell debtors that they had been contacted by police about the report and were willing to settle their debts for less.
01:06Enticed by the discount, some of the debtors would end up depositing a sum, believing that they had settled their previous debts.
01:13But after paying, they received call again from the alum which they borrowed.
01:19And then they said, hey, your manager is very collected.
01:22He said, no, we don't have such manager.
01:27Bureau Deputy Chief Ivan Tan said there are only two possible scenarios, collusion between scammers and loan sharks or an inside job.
01:36So we have a conclusion that there might be two possibilities.
01:40First, it might be the conspiracy between the so-called manager and the loan shark.
01:48So this is the first possibility.
01:50Secondly, it could be like, we call it inside job.
01:54How could this report, I mean, this all complainant, their police report, their information could be leaked out to so-called manager.
02:05So, of course, we will actually gather all this information, as Dato Sri has said, we will pass it to the government authority to investigate.
02:14One victim, who identified himself only as John, said his wife had borrowed 2,000 ringgit from a loan shark, but late payment interest ballooned the amount to 43,500 ringgit.
02:27After he filed a police report on August 11th, he received WhatsApp messages from someone claiming to be the loan shark's manager, offering a discount.
02:35So, immediately, I just blocked this person.
02:40I just used another phone number to text me.
02:43I just sent a message, hello, it would be fine.
02:45I said, it's not settled in the morning, right?
02:48It's fine. You wait for what I work.
02:51You have a family that I will find out until they pay off.
02:55I will charge your house again.
02:57Chong said some victims lost as much as RM10,000 to these fake managers and urged borrowers to be vigilant.
03:04So, be very careful, all these borrowers who want to return the money, whatever, who want to check, is to check the phone number, whether that such person is the right person.
03:20And if you want to bank in, try to bank in the same bank number which they're banking to you.
03:27The Bureau has received 243 cases involving nearly 25 million ringgit owed to loan sharks as of August this year.
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