Vice principal borrows money online, education department leader receives more than 1,000 harassing phone calls per day

On February 15, Mr. Le Trung Son - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nam Dan district said that he and some subordinates in the unit are filing a complaint with the police about being harassed by thousands of phone calls every day to collect debts. "We really can't stand it anymore. It's so annoying," Mr. Son said indignantly.

According to Mr. Son, the harassing calls started 3 days ago. "The first call, a man with a southern accent asked if this was the number of the Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nam Dan district? After I confirmed it was correct, he told Ms. T. - Vice Principal of a kindergarten in the area, had borrowed money but had not paid it back, and asked me to take responsibility. I replied that the debt was a civil transaction outside the school, I only managed the profession but I would also remind Ms. T.. However, he then turned to curse, saying that I was covering up," Mr. Son said.

Mr. Son's phone receives thousands of harassing calls every day. Photo: TH

Since then, Mr. Son has received thousands of harassing and abusive calls every day. "They use hundreds of different phone numbers. All of them start with 058. I have worked with the network operator but they are helpless. Like today, in just 1 hour after I woke up from my lunch break, I saw 292 missed calls from them. Meanwhile, I cannot turn off my phone because I still have work to do," Mr. Son said.

Not only Mr. Son, in the past 3 days, many leaders of the Nam Dan Education and Training Department have also faced the same situation. "Every minute or so, they call again. They call day and night. I block all these numbers, but they use another number," said Mr. Dang Hoai Nam - Deputy Head of the Nam Dan District Education and Training Department.

The leaders of the Department of Education and Training of Nam Dan district later also verified with the vice principal of the kindergarten. This female vice principal admitted that 3 years ago she had borrowed 40 million VND from Vietnam Prosperity Bank Finance Company Limited (also known as FE Credit, a subsidiary of Vietnam Prosperity Bank). The term to pay both principal and interest was 2 years. However, after paying for more than 1 year, she was no longer able to pay.

"When the bank called, I presented the conditions and asked for a delay until my finances were stable. But a few months later, I was posted on social media, and my relatives and friends were constantly harassed by phone calls. When I called back, I was told that the debt had been transferred to a debt collector and the fine had also increased...", Ms. T. said, adding that when applying for a consumer loan, the lender only asked for 2 phone numbers: her husband's and a colleague's. However, it is unclear why they had the phone numbers of the leaders of the Department of Education and Training to harass and demand money.