Many teachers in Nghe An had to resign because of gangster-style debt collection.

Paid off debt but still being persecuted

In mid-May, we met Ms. LH (30 years old, living in Vinh City), one of the victims of the debt collection mafia. Ms. H. used to be a kindergarten teacher, but could not stand the harassment and threats from the unscrupulous debt collectors, so a few months ago, Ms. H. had to resign from her job.

Ms. H. said that in 2014, due to house repairs but lack of money, she had to borrow 15 million VND from FE Credit (Vietnam Prosperity Bank Finance Company Limited, a subsidiary of Vietnam Prosperity Bank - VPBank). According to the contract, this debt would be paid within 24 months. However, according to Ms. H., after only 12 months, she had paid off the entire debt.

“I paid off all my debt to FE Credit after only 1 year, and when I called the hotline, they confirmed that it had been settled. In addition, I do not owe any other financial company, I have never had bad debt with anyone,” Ms. H. said indignantly.

After a while, in 2017, Ms. H. suddenly received a phone call from debt collectors, informing her that she still owed FE Credit 6 million VND. Thinking it was unreasonable, Ms. H. asked these people to come and work directly, but waited for a long time and still no one came to meet her. Meanwhile, her phone and that of her relatives have been continuously harassed and threatened since then.

“They called me continuously, first saying my debt was 6 million VND, then it increased to 10 million VND. They have been harassing me for the past 5 years, most recently they announced that the debt had increased to 100 million VND. While I requested to meet them in person, they refused, so I went to VPBank Nghe An branch to ask and they confirmed that my debt had been paid a long time ago,” Ms. H. added.

The leader of the Department of Education and Training of Tuong Duong district was attacked on Facebook even though the teacher did not have any debt. (The photo has been blurred by the reporter). Photo: TH

Not only did they harass and threaten Ms. H., dozens of her relatives and colleagues were also "terrorized" in similar ways. "They harassed me since I was teaching at Truong Thi Kindergarten. After that, I transferred to Quang Trung 1 Kindergarten, they also found out and attacked all the teachers in this school. It was terrible, they called to threaten to kill my whole family, to kidnap and kill my child...", Ms. H. said, adding that the debt collectors also attacked the phone number of the leaders of the Education sector, falsely accusing her of owing money and refusing to pay.

In addition to being “terrorized” by thousands of phone calls, Ms. H. and her family were also attacked on social networks. Accordingly, debt collectors found Ms. H.’s Facebook and Zalo accounts, downloaded pictures of her and her son, then edited and smeared them. They even edited a picture of her son sitting behind a bunch of bananas, then commented on the social network accounts of Ms. H. and her friends.

In addition, these people also repeatedly called the leaders of the Department of Education and Training of Vinh City, falsely accusing Ms. H. of beating students, even though at that time the entire kindergarten had to stop teaching due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic. After that, they falsely accused Ms. H. of stealing their husbands...

Ms. Le Thi Phuong - Principal of Quang Trung 1 Kindergarten said that she had just started working at this school since the beginning of 2022. However, just a few days after taking up the job, she was also "terrorized" by phone calls because she was accused of covering up for Ms. H. who borrowed money and did not pay it back. "They called to harass her day and night. They made terrible threats. In this school, there is no teacher who has not been harassed. And we did not borrow money," Ms. Phuong said indignantly. Not only did they attack the principal with threatening and cursing calls, the debt collectors also took a picture of her son and edited it to show him sitting behind a bunch of bananas.

After 5 years of harassment, feeling guilty towards her colleagues and leaders, Ms. H. had to resign. “Even though I don’t owe anyone money, seeing them harass the principal and colleagues like that, I also feel guilty. Because of too much pressure, I had to quit my job and change my phone number. I hope the authorities will step in to strictly handle those who have ruined our lives,” Ms. H. said resentfully.

Thinking of suicide because of debt collectors

Similarly, at Hung Chinh Kindergarten (Vinh City), Ms. LTG recently had to resign after 13 years of teaching. Ms. G. had to quit teaching after more than a year of enduring attacks by debt collectors. Not only did they attack Ms. G., these people also "terrorized" the school's board of directors, all the teachers, and even the parents of the teachers who were in their hometowns for a long time.

Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Ms. G. said that many years ago she borrowed 40 million VND from FE Credit. After that, she paid back half of it. “I know, I have to pay my debt. But at that time, my family had problems, life was too difficult. So my debt was overdue. FE Credit called to collect the debt, at first I asked for a longer period of time, but they refused. They started threatening to kidnap, kill my child, kill my whole family. Then they threatened and attacked the people around me,” Ms. G. recounted.

Being attacked to the point that Ms. G. repeatedly thought of committing suicide to keep her family and friends safe. Fortunately, Ms. G.'s relatives discovered her in time and stopped her. After being encouraged by her colleagues and friends, Ms. G. calmed down and gave up that thought. However, in February 2022, Ms. LTG submitted a resignation letter to "free" the school.

The principal and his biological mother were threatened on social media even though they were not related to the debt. Photo: TH

Ms. Le Kim Lien - Principal of Hung Chinh Kindergarten said that she and all the teachers in the school had to endure threats, intimidation by phone calls and insults and defamation on social networks for more than a year. "They called a vice principal, threatening that her child knew everything. They asked her to direct Ms. L. to pay them back immediately. I don't know where they got the phone number, but they even called the parents of another teacher in the school who was in the countryside to threaten. It was terrible," Ms. Lien said.

Ms. Lien and her biological mother were also insulted, threatened, and slandered on Facebook by debt collectors using their photos. The school later reported the incident to the Hung Chinh Ward Police, but the attacks continued. It was not until February 2022 that the principal had to post on Facebook that Ms. LTG had quit her job and was no longer teaching, then all the teachers and school administrators were released. "We also encouraged Ms. G. a lot, because we were afraid she would think of something stupid. When Ms. G. asked to quit her job, we also advised her, but to no avail," Ms. Lien added.

At Tam Hop Kindergarten (Tuong Duong), teachers and principals have been attacked with similar methods in recent days. Ms. LTD said that she has never borrowed money from any company or organization. However, for the past 3 weeks, debt collectors have somehow obtained information from her, her superiors and friends to call and threaten her, demanding that she pay her debt. “I have a friend who lives in the South and only contacts me occasionally, but they also call to defame me. I guarantee that I have no debt. When they call, my friends and I ask how much I owe and who I owe it to, but they don't say anything,” Ms. D. said.

The debt collectors also took to social media to take pictures of the Head of the Department of Education and Training of Tuong Duong district, the Principal of Tam Hop Kindergarten and Ms. D's colleagues, to smear them with the content of "covering up for Ms. D. to collect debt". "I have never been in such a situation, they attacked terribly. There was a time when I thought about committing suicide. Luckily, at that time, there were people who encouraged me, because they had also encountered similar situations", Ms. D. said. The incident was later reported to the Tam Hop Commune Police. However, to date, there have been no results.