Loansharks have been known to resort to drastic and often destructive measures in order to ‘punish’ their clients.
A 29-year-old Malaysian man who works in Singapore learnt this first-hand after he clicked on an online loan application link.
Although he never completed the application, loansharks allegedly targeted him and his family for harassment. Their house was even set on fire.
Source: Oriental Daily News Malaysia on Facebook
After attempts to stop the harassment failed, the man’s wife held a press conference to tell her story.
She said she has quit her job as she fears for her and her children’s safety.
Oriental Daily News reported that the harassment began after the woman’s husband clicked on a link to apply for a loan out of curiosity. This was back in May.
According to Ms Zhang (transliterated from Chinese), who’s from Pahang, the baker intended to borrow S$10,000, but after reading the terms and conditions, he found them suspicious and cancelled the application.
Source: Sora Shimazaki on Pexels, for illustration purposes only
However, the people who put up the link had already obtained his personal details.
Soon after, Ms Zhang’s husband received a call from an alleged loanshark, telling him that if he wanted the loan cancelled, he needed to pay a handling fee of S$2,000.
Otherwise, he “would be dealt with”.
As the alleged loanshark told Ms Zhang’s husband that the handling fee could be paid in instalments, the latter transferred S$200 to the other party’s bank account.
To his shock, the other party then claimed they didn’t receive the money.
Ms Zhang’s husband then refused to pay them any more fees.
When Ms Zhang’s husband stopped paying the fees, he started receiving threatening phone calls.
They even threatened to kidnap their children, who are aged four and five.
Things came to a head when unknown assailants set fire to the family’s house in Malaysia on 11 and 15 Sep.
CCTV footage shows the second incident.
At around 3am, a man dressed in a black shirt, black pants, a black cap, and a mask was seen dousing gasoline outside the gate of a house.
Source: Oriental Daily News Malaysia on Facebook
Ms Zhang said her family members saw him and called out to stop him.
Upon being noticed, the man touched a lighter to the gasoline, sparking a burst of flames before running off.
Source: Oriental Daily News Malaysia on Facebook
Luckily, the fire was able to be extinguished in time and no serious casualties were reported.
The ordeal didn’t end there.
During the press conference, Ms Zhang said a loanshark called her on 17 Sep to blackmail her for S$3,000 as the “fee” for sending someone to set fire to the house.
“In addition to being harassed by the loansharks, my mother, husband, sister, and mother-in-law were all implicated,” Ms Zhang said.
Source: Oriental Daily News Malaysia on Facebook
“I quit my job because I was worried about my own safety, and my children no longer attend kindergarten,” she continued.
She said she has reported the harassment to the police three times and hoped to use the press conference to stop the loansharks from bothering her family again.
“My husband has resigned from his job as a baker and plans to return to Malaysia to deal with this matter in the near future,” Ms Zhang added.
Also read: M’sian Loan Sharks Publicly Apologise After Splashing Paint On Wrong House, Offer Compensation Too
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Featured image adapted from Oriental Daily News Malaysia on Facebook.
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