PETALING JAYA: Several people have shared their emotional and financial struggles due to attempts by debt collectors to reclaim decade-old debts, often inflated and accompanied by intimidation.
For a 43-year-old housewife from Kuala Lumpur, who only wished to be known as Kak Anis, the ordeal began with a call early last year.
The caller claimed her husband owed RM40,000 to a bank and that the debt had been sold to a third-party collector.
She began making instalment payments of several hundred ringgit a month, but the calls persisted.
“The caller said because the debt was old, it kept increasing,” she said, baffled by the explanation.
After agreeing to pay a lump sum of RM4,000 and keeping all receipts, she was contacted again – this time with a demand for RM17,000.
“The caller threatened to come to our house and take everything.
“My husband is disabled and our kids are still young. I felt so helpless,” she recalled.
Fortunately, a non-governmental organisation helped her to uncover the debt collector’s dubious methods.
Businessman Jason Chew, 52, from Selangor, said he recently received a message asking for his address for the delivery of a legal notice related to a debt.
The sender, however, refused to identify himself.
“If you really want to collect a debt, you should say from where and for what,” he said.
Chew admitted he had borrowed RM100,000 from a local bank about a decade ago, but he failed to service it in the fifth year.
“The debt is over six years old now, it should not resurface because I have settled it with the bank to avoid bankruptcy,” he said, adding that he chose to ignore it while waiting for the legal document to reach him.
Clerical assistant Nora, from Shah Alam, said she had carried a credit card debt with a local bank since 2004 and was informed in 2019 that the debt had been sold to a collector.
“I never received any official notification or letter,” she said.
Soon, a person identified himself as Kamal from a debt collecting company persistently harassed her through phone calls and told her employer about her debt.
Nora added that the incident severely damaged her reputation at work.
When contacted, MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said in any case of aggressive debt collection tactics, such as threatening and scaring, the victims should lodge a police report.
“This is extortion,” he said.
Chong noted that while there are legitimate debt collectors who operate within legal frameworks, some exploit the system.
One of the latest tactics, he said, involved sending well-dressed women to debtors’ offices.
“These women will just sit and wait there for hours, making it embarrassing for the debtors,” Chong said, adding that the method often targeted employers.
He said he continues to receive such complaints from time to time and condemned aggressive debt collection practices that have driven many into deeper financial hardship.
“We need to be fair. If it’s harassment, it’s over-efficient, too much,” he said.
