2 days ago
- Business
- New Straits Times
Loan sharks using funerary symbols to intimidate borrowers, says MCA
KUALA LUMPUR: Loan sharks are now using funeral images to intimidate borrowers, replacing violent tactics with psychological pressure to collect dues, the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department revealed today.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said his team had received complaints alleging that loan sharks had edited their victims' faces into fake funeral photos.
"These edited images are uploaded on social media to instil fear and shame not just in the victims, but also their families," he said.
In one recent case, a businessman from Klang identified only as Tan, 40, claimed he had received an image showing his portrait in a mock funeral memorial.
"The image had joss sticks and an altar backdrop. They sent it after I failed to fully repay an unlicensed loan," he said at a press conference at Wisma MCA today.
"The photo was sent by the lender, known as Han, supposedly to 'remind' me of what happens when you don't pay up. But I had already repaid RM6,000 of the RM10,000 borrowed," he said.
Tan said the RM10,000 loan was part of a larger RM50,000 sum he had borrowed in February to support his business, and which had been repaid in March.
"I had borrowed five times before this and paid every time. But this time, even before I finished paying, they started threatening me in all sorts of ways.
"The picture was sent on June 26 but was deleted several hours later," he said.
Meanwhile, MCA Public Complaints Bureau deputy chief and lawyer Ivan Tan said such tactics were increasingly being used as a form of psychological intimidation.
Ivan said the shift in approach might be due to the loan sharks realising that symbolic or visual threats carried lighter penalties than physical violence.
"They likely have some legal awareness and believe that these symbolic threats do not fall under the category of serious criminal intimidation.
"This in turn makes it harder for authorities to act under existing legal provisions. We urge the government to review the laws and consider harsher penalties for such tactics," he said.
