Nghe An: More principals get caught up in the mess because teachers' relatives borrow money online

Life turned upside down because of unreasonable debt collection

Mr. Dang Van Bang - Principal of Muong Qua High School (Con Cuong district), has just submitted a report to the police about his beingslander on social network Facebook."The above information is fabricated to discredit and insult the dignity and honor of teachers towards me and Ms. Lo Thi Anh. It causes internal disunity, damages the reputation of the school among the people, parents, students, and affects the reputation of the education sector," Mr. Bang stated in his complaint to the police.

Teacher Bang said that in recent days, a Facebook account named "Anh Khang" has posted and disseminated images and information (combining images of Ms. Lo Thi Anh, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Sen, teachers at Muong Qua High School, and images of Mr. Bang) to many people with the aim of terrorizing, defaming, and insulting the dignity and honor of teachers. The content of the post is "a complaint against the principal of Muong Qua High School".

"My name: Lo Thi Anh, currently working as a teacher at the school. I use my honor to condemn the behavior of principal Dang Van Bang, oppression at work, collusion to intentionally delay the process of paying salaries, and embezzlement of teachers' salaries throughout the past time. After many times of contacting to hope to resolve the problem without success, I now write this petition hoping that everyone will join in denouncing this unethical and embezzled behavior to demand the rights of the employees working here. Contact: 0933.065.018 (meet Duong to demand justice for teachers), the content of the post reads.

Teacher Bang's photo was photoshopped and slandered on social media. Photo: TH

After learning the above information, the school held a meeting with representatives of the Board of Directors, the Chairman of the Trade Union, the People's Inspectorate, Ms. Lo Thi Anh, and Mr. Dang Van Bang to clarify the above content. The meeting concluded that the school always paid teachers' salaries in full and on time, without any "pressure at work". At the same time, Ms. Lo Thi Anh herself did not file a complaint with the above content.

"I really feel guilty for affecting the school because of family matters," Ms. Lo Thi Anh shared with Nghe An Newspaper reporters. According to Ms. Anh, the reason for this is because her younger sister, who currently lives in Thanh Hoa province, has a loan from FE Credit (a subsidiary of Vietnam Prosperity Bank).

"In 2020, my sister borrowed 53 million from FE Credit, paying 2.7 million VND per month for 4 years. The total amount of interest and principal to be paid is nearly 130 million VND. When completing the loan procedures, my sister registered my relative's phone number. However, recently, my family has had bad luck, so I haven't been able to pay for many months. That's why they started attacking my relatives. They called me a lot to curse me, after attacking me, they went to the school leaders," Ms. Anh said.

As the principal of the place where Ms. Anh works, Mr. Bang also had to suffer the consequences.

Not only in Con Cuong, in Tan Ky district, many schools also face similar situations. For many days now, the life of Ms. NTH's family - Principal of a middle school in the district has been turned upside down because of being attacked by debt collectors. Ms. H's family has had to live in a state of anxiety and worry due to the phone calls of debt collectors at all hours. Even though Ms. H's family has no one in debt.

Responding to Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Ms. H. said that not long ago, she received a phone call from an unknown number for the first time. This person loudly announced that a teacher in the school owed money to the bank and had not yet paid it off. The bank then transferred the debt to a debt collection company to collect the debt. This person asked Ms. H. to put pressure on the teacher to immediately pay the debt.

“However, when I checked, the teacher pledged that he had never borrowed any money. I responded to the debt collectors like that, and said that the teacher’s debt outside had nothing to do with the school. But they still cursed and accused me of covering up,” Ms. H. said.

Ms. H's daughter was threatened. Photo: TH

After that phone call, Ms. H.'s Facebook account was immediately attacked. They used her family's photos to frame and slander her for covering up for a teacher who defaulted on his debt. Not only did they attack Ms. H., but they also found out her daughters' phone numbers and Facebook accounts and threatened them, who are living and working in Hanoi. Among them, there was a Zalo account with a profile picture of a group of tattooed young men who texted Ms. H.'s daughter, informing her where she was working, and at the same time threatening her, "Look around when you walk. If you fall while walking and end up blind or broken, it's not your soldiers who did it"... "We are really confused. We are very worried about our two daughters who are working in Hanoi. We have been living in a state of anxiety and worry for many days now," Ms. H. said.

Sharing the same situation as Ms. H., another principal in Vinh City also said that for more than a week now, her whole family has been in a similar situation. “They texted, called, and attacked me on social networks all day long. They not only attacked me but also terrorized my entire family. They even called to threaten my elderly parents in the countryside, accusing me of borrowing money. In fact, none of the teachers and I were in debt,” the principal said indignantly.

Similar to other victims, in addition to being terrorized by phone calls at all hours to curse and send threatening messages, this principal and her family also had their pictures taken to frame, defame, and slander them on Facebook. “I don’t understand why they have so much personal information about my family. Not only phone numbers but also a lot of other information, they know very well. They know which school my child goes to, which class. We are really confused,” the principal added.

Need to prevent soon

Regarding this problem, in mid-May, Nghe An Newspaper also published a series of articles. Immediately after that, many press agencies also joined in. On May 25, the Criminal Police Department of Hanoi Police coordinated with the Criminal Police Department (Ministry of Public Security) to destroy a black credit ring with 300 suspects from across the country being summoned, including many foreigners. According to the investigation, borrowers only need to take a photo of their ID card or citizen ID card, then use their phone contacts as collateral and send it via the app. With just such a procedure, customers can borrow 2-30 million VND without having to meet or sign loan documents.

Immediately after disbursement, the lending group will collect the interest, and the borrower will have to pay the principal within 3-5 days. In case the principal cannot be paid as committed, the amount will be multiplied to calculate at an "exorbitant" interest rate of more than 2,000%/year. When realizing that someone is unable to pay, the lending group will direct the debt collection department to text, call to threaten, and terrorize them and their relatives and contacts in the phone book. In many cases, they crop and edit the borrower's image and post it on social networks to smear and force quick debt repayment.

On July 12, the Ministry of Public Security and Lao Cai Provincial Police continued to destroy a similar ring, 41 people were summoned for questioning. This is a transnational crime ring, led by foreign suspects. They established Funmobi Technology Company Limited and then used nearly 300 mobile money lending applications such as Vndong, Hitien, Zdong, Hvay... These apps are linked with nearly 200 pawnshops and fintech finance companies to provide loan packages worth 2-7 million VND, with a loan term of 7 days and an interest rate of more than 2,000%/year.

A terrorist-style debt collection lending ring has just been dismantled. Photo: CACC

When the payment deadline comes and the customer does not pay, the group of employees will call to threaten and terrorize relatives and friends and must pay a 6% overdue penalty fee. Police determined that about 159,000 customers borrowed through the Vndong, Hitien, Zdong, Hvay applications with a total amount of more than 1,800 billion VND. Of which, the disbursed amount is nearly 660 billion VND; the actual amount that customers have paid is 830 billion VND, the penalty fee is nearly 10 billion VND. The amount of money that the group of suspects appropriated is more than 320 billion VND.

However, after these arrests, the terrorist debt collection situation continues to be rampant, at least in Nghe An province. In fact, there are some financial companies under banks, which in theory are not "black credit" but still collect debts in this way, making people angry. In particular, there is a company with more than 20,000 employees, specializing in lending and collecting debts in this terrorist way... Despite receiving a lot of feedback from people, this company still openly advertises and operates vigorously.

At the recent National Assembly session, a delegate also mentioned the situation of many people who did not borrow money but were harassed, insulted, defamed, and threatened by phone calls because their names and phone numbers were in the contacts of people who borrowed money through online loan applications but did not repay their debts on time. This person asked the Governor of the State Bank what measures would be implemented to gradually limit the above-mentioned behaviors?

Governor of the State Bank Nguyen Thi Hong said that, based on public and press reports on debt collection by financial companies, the State Bank has reviewed and found that it is necessary to fundamentally amend the provisions of the law. Currently, the State Bank's Circular regulating lending by financial companies has been revised in the direction that companies are not allowed to collect debts by threatening measures and also clearly stipulates the debt collection time from 9am to 9pm...

Tien Hung