Illegal practice on online platform Jiedaibao.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
In a scandalous practice, some Chinese money-lending firms demand a nude photo of women as collateral for loans and the same are used for blackmail if loaners default on the repayment.
According to a report in Beijing Youth Daily, money-lending firms on online platform Jiedaibao ask female borrowers to send their nude photos posed with ID card for availing usury loans.
Jiedaibao is an online platform for individuals and small lenders to lend and borrow money. If they make default, the lenders threaten them to show their photo to their friends and family. But those sending nude photo will get four to five times more loan amount. However, the interest rate may go up to 30 percent.
“This is an illegal offline trade between victims and lenders who did it by making use of the platform,” a representative told Financial Times.
Apart from blackmailing, the lenders sometimes use property destruction and beat up the defaulters to recover the loan amount.
“If they borrow from banks there is no threat to personal safety. But if they borrowed from private lenders, especially high-interest lenders, it can happen,” bankruptcy lawyer Han Chuanhua of the Zhongzi Law Offices in Beijing told Financial Times.
“If they can’t repay sometimes the high-interest lender send people to their homes. Mostly they threaten, but sometimes they take action. These types of people don’t go through legal channels,” he added.
In some cases, the lenders have asked the women defaulters for sex service. Jiedaibaos does not intervene in the issue citing that the practice was only an agreement between the customers and lenders. In extreme cases of harassment, they advise the customers to seek the help of police.