13 debt collectors arrested in HCMC for illegal, coercive methods

Thirteen employees of the South Korean-invested Mirae Asset Finance Company have been arrested by Ho Chi Minh City police for threatening and slandering customers in the debt collection process.

HCMC police said Sunday that they had raided a District 4 office of the finance company that specialized in making slanderous calls and using other threats to collect debts. Several dozen people across the country were victims, initial investigations show.

The criminals used borrowers’ phone numbers to hack into their contacts and social network accounts, and “terrorized” their relatives and colleagues to collect debts.

The debt collectors were paid 30% of the amount collected from the borrowers.

The Mirae Asset Finance Company, headquartered in District 1, is headed by a South Korean man as general director. The firm, licensed by the State Bank of Vietnam, is engaged in lending, providing installment loans and consumer loans.

Borrowers were asked to provide their own and relatives’ information on signing contracts with the firm, which charged 4.58% interest per month or 55% per year for loans that would have to be repaid in monthly instalments.

Customers who didn’t repay the loans on time were categorized into three groups. For the group that hadn’t made due payments within one to 89 days, the company staff used software to remind them and their relatives in a polite and gentle manner.

Frequent calls and text messages to the borrowers and relatives were reserved for the group that was 90 to 179 days overdue.

For the group that was more than 180 days overdue, the debt collectors used phones and social network accounts to call, text messages, slander and threaten the borrowers and their relatives.

They even used images of the borrowers and their relatives to create funeral pictures or other depraved photos, made up notices announcing the people were hunted for debt evasion or fraud and sent these to borrowers’ customers, relatives, friends and colleagues via social networks.

The case is being investigated further by the police.