KUALA LUMPUR: Loan sharks abroad are paying lucrative sums to runners to carry out acts of intimidation and violence against borrowers defaulting on repayments here.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong, who revealed this, said the “easy money” is enticing many and entrapping borrowers in a vicious cycle of intimidation.
He said syndicates believed to be run by Singaporeans are actively recruiting locals through social media and offering attractive payouts to carry out threats and acts of harassment, including vandalism and firebombing.
“From the information we received, runners are paid about RM500 to splash red paint on houses and RM700 to hurl Molotov cocktails at the defaulters’ homes,” Chong told a press conference here yesterday.
To add salt to the wound, the payments made to the runners are passed on to the borrowers as “service charges”, he said.
“It is added to the loan together with various penalty fines which can inflate the total repayment to even 10 times the initial amount borrowed,” he said.
Chong said syndicates were resorting to new tactics to pressure defaulters, including targeting neighbours and extended family members.
He cited an incident on March 21 involving Lee, a salesman from Rawang, who lodged a police report after being harassed over a loan taken by his maternal uncle who is said to be a compulsive gambler.
“The loan sharks demanded that he repay the S$5,000 (about RM15,000) loan even though he had not been in contact with his uncle for more than nine years,” he said.
Chong said red paint was splashed on a neighbour’s house with the main gate and a car damaged, adding that flyers bearing photos of Lee’s mother and uncle were also distributed in the area.
“They also threatened to burn Lee’s house and attack other neighbouring homes if their demands were not met.
“We initially thought it was a case of mistaken identity but now we know this is a deliberate tactic to pressure and shame the family by going after their neighbours instead,” he said.
“We have sought an appointment with Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa for police to step up enforcement against these loan shark syndicates,” Chong added.
