How Loan Sharks Are Destroying People's Life & What You Can Do

The popularity of Loan Sharks grew very fast in most countries during the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak - Before now, most people particularly in third-world countries had little or no knowledge of these type of lenders. 

Within a space of few months into the Covid pandemic outbreak, many loan agencies gained popularity. Why? These agencies came as the saviour - The timing was just right, and many innocent people fell for it.

Prior to the this time, borrowing money was rocket science - The eligibility aspect was giving a lot of people a hard time to deal with. However, it seemed like these loan sharks saved the day by removing the bottleneck requirements needed in securing a loan.

The offers were just too good to pass on - It indeed saved the day, or so did a lot of innocent people think. They offered payday loans, emergency medical loans, small business loans and even small loans for daily needs. Who wouldn't think this was a harmless offer?

First of all, who are the people behind these predatory loan agencies? There have been many speculations that they're mostly Italian, Chinese and other drug barons and mafias. But beyond these speculations, who are they? 

Who Are They? 

Loan shark agencies have been around for a long time, they've been operating in most European and Asian countries.

But, they're illegal. Loan Shark agencies are not in most cases legally licensed to operate as a financial institution. Although they may pay task to the county's or state's revenue agency where they operate - But this does not mean they're officially recognized as a legal lending institution.

In fact, worse as it is, most of these loan sharks operate with illegal funds, meaning they lend out funds gotten from dubious means or other unlawful means such as illegal drug business, fraud and many other ways.

You'll be shocked to even find out that these loan agencies are often owned by drug barons, arms dealers, internet fraudsters and the likes. 

This is why they go ahead to offer high risk (no collateral) loans because they know they will (or can) always milk their money out by employing many unlawful means.

What They May Do To You

Like sharks, these loan agencies are deadly, predatory in nature and they go to unimaginable lengths to make sure that you pay back the loans you took from them.

Although, in most cases, these agencies do not have the legal rights to physically do something against you or net you into police custody, but the damage they'll do indirectly can have a long-term effect on your dignity, sanity and even relationship with important people. 

They go as far as sending defamatory messages to your contacts, since you've granted them access to your phone contact list. They will then use this against you by sending your contacts messages, painting your image bad.

This could affect your mental health, it could cost you your job (just imagine if your boss receives a message that you stole money) what do you think their reaction will be? 

Loan Sharks have been destroying people's relationships, people's reputations and dignity for a very long time. It is why most financial advisors will never allow or advise you to take a loan from them no matter how mouth watering the offer may seem.

Worst Case Scenario.....

> They can steal your credit/debit card details and hack your account. In recent times, there have been a lot of complaints from people whose account have been hacked and money withdrawn from it.

> Illegal or back doors access to your account or other sensitive information about you. Similar to the previous point, these lenders request permission to access your photos, contacts and sometimes other sensitive information - There is a reason, some will use these sensitive information to get their money back whether legally authorized or unauthorized. 

In such case, your bank may not be able to help you recover your funds. 

Some people have reported that their ATM cards where cloned and used to pay for items at shopping malls and withdraw cash at "Point Of Sale" POS agents stands while they were asleep or at work.

Another thing is, the level of damage the defamatory messages they send to your contacts could cause may sometimes be irreversible.

There have been a lot of cases of suicide and attempted suicide all linking back to these agencies - People become depressed, lose respect and much more.

> Double charge you, some of these illegal loan agencies will intentionally frustrate your effort to pay back on time, the idea is to ensure that you pay a higher interest - So it is either you're having a difficult time paying through the app, or their customer support becomes unavailable when you urgently need to pay back. All these are tricks to make sure your debt increases.

> Getting deadly threats, they are very good at making threats, heavy, scary threats that can capsize your confidence and make you lose hope.

What You Should (or could) Do

Since these agencies are mostly considered illegal lenders, the options you have to fight back are quite lean.

However you're not totally helpless - You could decide to pay back the loan, and then sue the lender for character defamation. Get a good legal advisor to help you handle this case.

Secondly, you could totally ignore their messages, tell your contacts to ignore as well and just move on with life.

Thirdly, to avoid unnecessary calls, messages and emails, you could change your phone number, your email address and just start life on a fresh note.

This is not a bad idea as the damage has been done already, you're not going to be arrested - They only make these threats to scare you so as to get you to pay, or for someone to bail you out.

All in all, if you fall victim - Don't panic, focus more of that time to do damage control so as to redeem your good image.

If you find a means to pay back, please do - It'll lift off the burden, and make sure to advise your close friends or relatives to stay away from these lenders.

Have you had a terrible experience with any of these agencies - We would like to hear your story.