“Loop loan “Some of the 89 people who committed suicide left suicide notes. Some of them confessed to their families that they had fallen into the borrowing process, but “woke up too late “; some said, “I was harmed by online lending “; some said, “online loans are growing like a snowball, can’t hold on anymore “
After a girl hanged herself, her family found the girl’s bank card empty, with not a single penny in it. In the girl’s room before she died, there was nothing else of value except for a 50-cent coin left on the floor.
The girl died in September 2018, and just a few months after the girl’s death, her family and friends were still receiving debt collection calls and text messages from time to time from different numbers. The girl had borrowed money from several online lending platforms before her death, including an amount of $1,100 from the Sweet Rabbit App (hereinafter referred to as “Sweet Rabbit The girl had borrowed $1,100 from the Sweet Rabbit App (hereinafter referred to as “Sweet Rabbit”), which on the surface appears to be a recipe sharing software, but actually provides ” One-stop loan service”. Sweet Rabbit claims that it can quickly review, fill in the information within 1 minute, and release the loan within 1 hour after review, with a loan amount of 1,000 yuan – 5,000 yuan and a cycle of 7 days.
Sweet Rabbit is an online loan platform that once flooded the internet. With a flexible online loan amount, low application threshold, fast lending, as well as late not counted in the credit, these platforms attract many borrowers, many of them are “after 80 “”Post-90s The “90s”. But what borrowers often do not know is that most of these platforms do not have legal lending qualifications, high interest rates, once overdue, will be subject to debt collection calls and SMS bombardment day and night, this “soft violence This is a very good idea.
“Loop loan “The core of the scheme is that as long as the borrowed money is borrowed more and more, until the borrower lost all his money, and even died by suicide.
In March 2019, Lanzhou police knocked down a mega-loan criminal group led by Wang Toi, involving Sweet Rabbit, Daisy Eagle, Lightning Tiger, Festival Cat and other App platforms and related websites were seized, which are mostly named after animals and are known as These platforms are mostly named after animals and are known as “animal-based” online lending platforms.
On January 12, 2021, the Gansu Provincial High People’s Court handed down the verdict of the second trial, and the final trial found that the Lanzhou mega “Loop Loan “fraud more than 475,000 people, of which more than 390,000 people had been “soft violence “debt collection, 89 people committed suicide after forced debt collection. The sheer number of victims of this case is shocking, and the lives of those who died as a result of online lending are even more saddening. Although it is no longer possible to trace the stories of the deceased one by one, the encounters they had before they were born have not been sealed.
Caught in the mud
Hong Cheng, a user of Sweet Rabbit, said he had experienced the powerlessness of the aforementioned girl who hanged herself. The 28-year-old Hong Cheng told reporters that after falling into the online loan, the money owed always seems to be incomplete, and every day lives in the anxiety of debt collection and repayment, “every day is a repayment day, eating and sleeping are worried about how to borrow money Repayment, life is worse than death. “Hong Cheng said.
Hong Cheng was once a carefree young man, born in a coastal city, 20 years old into the workplace, sponsored by his parents to buy a house. Hong Cheng said the twist appeared in 2018 after resignation, “because of the urgent need for money, and not always good to ask the family to ask, began to brush credit card “.
Several times after not being able to pay back the money, the credit card was deactivated. After this, Hong Cheng saw the promotional link of Sweet Rabbit in the text message. Hong Cheng clicked on the download and tried to borrow 1000 yuan, soon 700 yuan to the account, the first 300 yuan deducted from the principal inside the commonly known as “chopping interest”. After 7 days of expiration, there is no money to pay back, customer service said you can extend 1 day to charge 10% interest, and 7 days to charge 30% interest, Hong Cheng extended 7 days. After the expiration again, Hong Cheng still can not pay, and then someone recommended to him some other lending platform, “each platform and then charge interest. “
“Online loans are more addictive than drugs, if you do not have the money to pay, you will borrow again. The ‘chopping head interest’ is deducted a lot, the deeper you fall, and finally just keep borrowing money. “Hong Cheng lamented. In the meantime, he “tear down the east wall to fill the west wall “East and west from the online borrowing, but also from the new company embezzled some money.
Hong Cheng at the end of 2018 rough calculation, in less than a year, he borrowed a total of more than 30 online lending platform, the principal and interest totaled more than 200,000 yuan.
In the same year of 2018, Chen Dong, who had just graduated from high school, began to take on debt, and he recalled to reporters how he fell into online lending. in June 2018, an online friend said he had no money for dinner and asked him to borrow money. Chen said he had no money, and the other party sent over a website called The other party sent over a link to download an app called “Universal Wallet” and told him he could apply for a loan on there. “People are greedy, pure lending him is not possible, he said he would give me interest, I also can not withstand the temptation. “In this way, Chen Dong borrowed 500 yuan, no “chopping interest”, 7 days after the due repayment and add interest of 125 yuan. Chen Dong will transfer the money to the net friend, but after the expiration of the net friend did not pay back the money as promised, Chen Dong no income, borrowed money from other platforms to repay the money, and later lent money to that net friend several times one after another. Chen Dong said, he later reflected, suspecting that this friend may be the online lending platform put out “bait The company’s main goal is to provide a solution to the problem.
In Chen Dong’s confession, “so fell into the mire, and the scary thing about online loans is that once dabbled in online loans, like dominoes, other things in life soon fell down. “Chen Dong said he borrowed only a very small part of the money for his own use, the vast majority used to pay back the previous loan.
Once you start online lending, personal information scattered in all directions, a variety of links and loan sharks will take the initiative to find the door. Chen Dong said, before and after dozens of money lenders call him, asking to add WeChat, he WeChat added 30 to 40 such friends. He borrowed most of the interest rate in 30%-60%, chatting good money lenders sometimes “accommodating In October 2018, when the debt accumulated to more than 200,000 yuan between different platforms and lenders, Chen Dong realized that he owed too much, he began to fear, irritability, insomnia, polyps in the stomach, but did not dare to tell his family “confess “.
The deeper the online loan, the deeper Chen Dong ended up with no less than 80 borrowing platforms and lenders. According to his statistics, his own in the “animal system “The funds lent by each platform are 30,000 to 40,000 yuan.
From October to December 2018, Chen Dong faced high amounts of borrowing and repayment every month. The screenshot presented by Chen Dong shows that in the first half of November of that year alone, he borrowed a total of 45,000 yuan four times, 6,000 yuan, 7,000 yuan, 10,000 yuan, and 22,000 yuan, sometimes with only one day between two loans; in the middle, he borrowed a total of 22,000 yuan four times again; and in the second half, he borrowed more than 49,000 yuan.
And these, just the money he borrowed from individuals. The screenshots show that Chen Dong’s borrowing period ranged from 7 to 10 days, and most of the borrowings were returned as scheduled, two were 1 day overdue, one was 2 days overdue, and the last borrowing of the month was 58 days overdue.
Why borrowing?
Chen Dong and Hong Cheng both said that once deep in the quagmire of online loans, “tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall ” “to lend to feed the loan “Become a lot of people’s practice, the debt is rolling bigger and bigger, they have almost forgotten why they borrowed money in the first place.
Between the fingers sliding between different online loan platforms, there is no turning back. The adjudication documents show that Lanzhou mega “set of loans “case, fraud more than 475,000 people, of which more than 390,000 people had been “soft violence “debt collection.
The reporter learned that few of these borrowers borrowed only in one or two platforms or limited to the “animal system “online lending platform, many people’s borrowing platform are up to dozens, and even some people in hundreds of platforms to borrow money – the phone on the online lending App crowded screen page after page.
Hong Cheng said that after dipping into online loans, one by one when the repayment deadline comes, “think about how to make up the hole, like a ghost. “In an interview, many people have similar statements.
As for why to borrow online loans, there are various reasons. The reporter learned that the most common statement made by victims when reporting to the police is that they initially took the path of online lending because of the need for capital turnover, or the urgent need for money on hand. Some will mention the specific reasons for borrowing, some are business needs capital turnover or business needs money; some are to pay credit cards, mortgage and other loans; some are just starting to work, rent, daily need money; a few people because of family accidents, family illness shortage of money on hand; some is to lend to friends and relatives; others because of gambling, gambling, speculation and other lost money.
A woman said that she received a promotion at home to borrow money by phone, with the attitude of trying to borrow 1,000 yuan, to 700 yuan, after the repayment there were people asking her whether to borrow again, she said no need. Soon, she wanted to buy gifts for her family and happened to have no money on hand, so she had no choice but to borrow again. Because of the ease of use of online lending platforms, this lady has borrowed money in hundreds of online lending platforms; a boy said, because his mother has a disease, a month has to spend more than 30,000 yuan, because there is no money to buy drugs, he went to borrow online; another boy said that his girlfriend urgently need money to pay back online loans, he thus began to borrow ……
Free from the embarrassment and overwhelm of opening your mouth to borrow in reality, borrowing in the internet seems to be a breeze. Many people look at online loan platforms mainly because of the flexibility of lending, low application threshold, fast review, quick release, no credit, and the “low interest rate” claimed by almost all platforms “. Many people say that they did not expect to end up in the “snare loan The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you are getting into.
The starting amount of borrowing mostly ranges from 1000 to 5000 yuan, which is not a high amount. But after a dozen, dozens, or even hundreds of turnarounds, after tearing down the east to make up for the west, debt like a snowball rapidly expanding. Some people borrowed more than 810,000 yuan and paid back more than 1.2 million yuan; some people borrowed more than 700,000 yuan and paid back more than 800,000 yuan; some people borrowed more than 390,000 yuan and paid back more than 500,000 yuan; some people borrowed about 50,000 yuan and paid back nearly 200,000 yuan.
Many people do not earn enough to repay these loan sharks. Some people got into debt only to find that “it seemed like they couldn’t pay it all back The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers.
The reporter learned that most of those caught in online loans are ordinary working people, their income is usually only a few thousand dollars, some engaged in public service, some floating in a foreign country to work, these people are working people in various industries, and even pig farmers, police officers, etc..
The reporter also found such a case in the interview, there is a bank employee into online loans, her colleagues, leaders received collection calls, this bank staff from the head of the staff was demoted to general staff.
In fact, there is a significant portion of borrowers who do not have jobs and income.
Unbearable Debt
After the initial ease of borrowing, the debt gradually accumulated became heavy until it became unbearable.
At the end of 2018, after borrowing accumulated more than 200,000 yuan, Hong Cheng was afraid when he heard the phone ring or SMS alerts, “100% is to collect “, he even needed to be under the anesthesia of alcohol to sleep. Seeing that the hole of moving money from the company to pay off debts could not be plugged, Hong Cheng climbed to the roof of a six-story building and prepared to jump. Fortunately, he was rescued from the roof by the police in time.
In the “last words” left by Hong Cheng “In the last words, his father knew that his son owed online loans, and eventually raised money around to help him make up the hole at once. Hong Cheng’s father is a public official, “he said he lived more than 50 years, never borrowed money, for the first time because his son bowed down to borrow money from others. “Hong Cheng said. After paying off the loan, Hong Cheng had a solid Spring Festival.
In the same December 2018, Chen Dong’s overdue arrears increased, his father and numerous friends and relatives received calls from collection agents, and the borrowing could no longer be hidden. Chen Dong said that after receiving a call from his father asking him to go home, he spent the night in an Internet cafe and finally decided to “confess “and sort out the amount of money borrowed. His family is not rich, his father does decoration, his mother works in a factory.
Chen Dong combed through a list of borrowings and found that he had borrowed more than 400,000 yuan. Although his family repeatedly complained about Chen Dong, but still borrowed money from friends and relatives to help him pay off his debts, the most loving his grandmother gave him more than 20,000 yuan, in several times to help him settle the debt. Chen Dong said, “As long as you step into the pit of online loans, unless someone pulls, it will be drowned in it. “
There are many borrowers like Hong Cheng, Chen Dong, in the “confession After the “confession”, by parents to help pay off the debt, some parents also sold the family home for this reason. Others had no such opportunity. Some people mentioned in their reports that they faced the dilemma of family loss, broken marriages and lost jobs after being called in.
In the Lanzhou mega “Loans ” case, the Lanzhou City Procuratorate alleged that the criminal group used “set-up loans The case of the Lanzhou City Prosecutor’s Office alleges that the criminal group used the “lobbying loan” as a basic way to lure victims into borrowing money, charging ultra-high interest rates, and “borrowing new money to pay off the old” through the platform. borrow new to repay old” The “loan to repay the old” way of maliciously high debt, the victims up to 475,000 people, the use of “Soft violence” to collect illegal debts, the number of people collected The number of people collected reached more than 390,000. The ruling instrument also mentioned that, after big data analysis, among the victims involved in the case of Hangzhou online loan company loans, 328 people died unnaturally, and after verification, 89 of them had suffered from forced debt collection before they were born.
Among these 89 people, a 23-year-old girl committed suicide in early 2019. The girl was about to graduate from college, told her family that she had found a job, and went out every day at work hours and came home at the point when she finished work. After the girl’s death, her family checked her phone only to discover the fact that she had taken out an online loan and was unemployed.
There was also a 90-year-old boy who committed suicide twice after getting caught up in online loans. After being saved by the police the first time, he also sent them a banner to express his gratitude, but soon after, he lost hope again and was not saved the second time when he committed suicide.
There is almost no threshold for online lending, simply because of the “killer app” in the hands of the platforms “- mastered the borrower’s address book. Borrowers must provide their true identity when logging on to the online lending platform, allowing the platform to access their cell phone address book, call records and other information. After the repayment date is due, and the debt is still not repaid after reminders and reminders from the collectors, friends, relatives and acquaintances in the address book will receive debt collection calls and text messages. Some collectors will use a kind of software commonly known as “call you to death Some collectors will use a software commonly known as “paging you” to constantly “bombard” people through phone calls and text messages. Some collectors will use insulting collection language and P pictures to force debts.
During the trial, Wang Toe and his attorneys said that most of the victims did not just borrow from the animal system online loan platform, but borrowed from dozens of online loan platforms at the same time and faced many collection companies at the same time. On the other hand, the collection behavior was independently and autonomously implemented by the relevant collection companies, and was not organized, led, authorized or directed by Wang Toe and others, and therefore should not be the responsibility of Wang Toe and others. After several days of court hearing, the court did not endorse the defense opinion.
The reporter learned that among the 89 people who committed suicide after being subjected to collection, they were all subjected to collection by many different platforms before they died, so it is difficult to say which phone call or text message was the “last straw that broke the camel’s back It is difficult to say which phone call or text message was the “last straw”. However, the oppression and humiliation brought by online loan collection is real and unavoidable, and some victims even suffered from depression. Many people’s friends and relatives have received collection messages, often a P-picture with insulting words. Some collection messages say that the borrower unfortunately has gonorrhea syphilis and AIDS, because the loan can not afford to repay, can come to your home, and text messages say “hurry up and pay back, or send a wreath to your home! “
Among the 89 suicides, some left suicide notes: some confessed to their families that they had fallen into the process of borrowing, but “woke up too late “; some clearly said, “by the online loan “; some said, “online loans are like a snowball more and more, and can’t hold on anymore”.
Why are mainly young people?
The reporter learned that, in Lanzhou mega “lucrative loan “case, those who are deep in the mire of online loans are mostly young people, to “after 80 “”After 90 “The majority of the group, a few are “After 60” “post-70”.
Peng Ya, a lawyer practicing in Hangzhou, used to serve the formal microfinance company. According to his observation, online lending is oriented to the younger group, the main service targets are people around 30 years old, who have just started working, and some are college students, these people generally do not have high income, some can only solve the subsistence, and some belong to “Moonlighters”. Many young people who borrow money from dozens of online loan platforms, some have the habit of high consumption, some are caught in online games, gambling, and some are “tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall The first thing you need to do is to get rid of it. He has received several cases of advice about online loans, all mentioning that the family’s children have just graduated from college and owe more than 100,000 yuan in online loans, “asking me what to do? “
Several online social networking platforms, there are people left “how to quit online loans ” “How to confess to the family ” “owes too much online loan how to get on the shore ” and other questions, and there are even people organized ” The “bankruptcy institute” and other online communities. A community organizer, who wishes to remain anonymous, told reporters that the number of applicants in his community was around 300, all of whom were university students or young people who had just graduated. The organizer himself was in debt, having lost more than 300,000 yuan because of the P2P mine, and the money was mainly his savings and a small amount of cash from credit card cash. The good thing is that the organizer eventually paid off the entire amount he owed.
He Xu, a PhD from the Department of Anthropology of Fudan University and a partner of Shanghai Rui Cong Culture Development Co., Ltd, is engaged in research and market consulting for the consumer culture and identity definition of different groups. He Xu analyzed to the reporter, “post-90s “”Post-80s “”Post-70s “”Post-60s “These four generation groups are the most concerned objects of the consumer market.
“Post-90s ” and the younger “post-00s ” have grown up in time with China’s fastest growing economy, and have grown up living in the Internet era, for them the Internet is the world, and the boundaries between online and offline are blurred, if not absent. “For the ‘post-80s’ and ‘post-70s’, offline identities are more important, such as whose husband, wife, son or daughter, which company employee, etc., but for the ‘post-90s’, perhaps the online identity is more important, more able to present his true self or self “. At the same time, the “post-90s “They mature earlier and are even more worldly, which may also partially affect their consumption behavior.
In terms of consumption characteristics, He Xu observed that, compared to older people, the “post-90s The “post-90s” group is more capable of earning and spending, and grew up in the Internet era, and is a generation more empowered by consumption. For example, online subculture circles, communities formed online based on clothes and shoes, rap, hipster games, etc., all give the “post-90s The “post-90s” have more consumption opportunities than previous generations. Online loans correspond to the relatively strong consumption desire of young people, “post-90s The “post-90s” do not necessarily have the strongest spending power, but the strongest willingness to spend.
He Xu also said that this does not mean that the “post-90s There are some young people who create more value through consumption, expand their social circle, and even explore the whole world. “Even to explore the whole world and discover more possibilities for themselves. “Beyond the individual drive of people, the penetration of various credit products is also related to various factors such as the business expansion of Internet companies, the use of technology such as big data, consumer policies and financial regulation.
Alipay 2020 had released the “Young People’s Consumer Life Report”, showing that nearly 170 million “post-90s” in China Among them, 65 million of them have opened the “HuaYao “. Previously in 2019, Nielsen Market Research had done a similar report, saying that the overall credit product penetration rate of young people had reached 86.6%.
He Xu said that in early traditional consumer market research, young people were not usually seen as potential consumers due to their unstable income and low absolute income. “After 2018, almost all brands have shifted their mantra, which is that my age is going down, down and down again. This trend swept through like a tsunami. Even the classic luxury brands are facing this problem – how do we approach the youth. “In He Xu’s opinion, young people become more valuable, which is not entirely based on the actual money in their hands, their time, attention, influence and communication power, all constitute the judging of a consumer’s consumption power The measure of a consumer’s spending power.
Back to the Lanzhou mega-loan “case, many people mentioned that they initially came into contact with online lending because they happened to receive promotional SMS or telephone inquiries from online lending platforms or moneylenders, and only a few said that they took the initiative to search for borrowing software because of financial constraints.
Life goes on
Chen Dong experienced the online loan nightmare, for this bitterness, self-blame for a period of time, the most pain his grandmother said, “a good flower, met a drop of rain withered. “
Chen Dong hopes to make up for his parents, but he doesn’t know what else to do but to work hard to earn money, and his father will be mean to him on the phone when he is stressed. Chen Dong and his mother, who works outside the home, also have little contact, and online loans allow the trust between mother and son to reach a critical point.
Because of the epidemic, Chen Dong’s job has changed and changed, and now he has a monthly salary of four to five thousand dollars. He often works overtime. In terms of food and use to try to save, remove the rent and utility expenses, “I now save nearly 10,000 yuan, the speed of saving money is a little slow. “
Because of the epidemic, some friends and relatives are financially nervous, some people pressed Chen Dong and his father to pay back the money as soon as possible, father and son under great pressure. Chen Dong quit the online loan platform, turn off the flower, and think twice before doing anything. He said, “I can only go forward. Look forward to see a little light, I can not turn back. “
Looking back on the past experience of getting caught up in online loans, Hong Cheng as spending money to buy a lesson, “this kind of thing encountered once is enough The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you are getting into. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. “case victims, Hong Cheng and Chen Dong took the initiative to express their desire to share their experiences. Compared to the days of being on edge in online loans, Hong Cheng thinks he is now a thousand times happier than before. Now, he works in a friend’s company, spare time and brother to do small business, “earn a little money to honor their parents, sometimes go back from work in the evening, and father to drink a little wine, light, happy and comfortable. “
(At the request of the interviewee, the text Hong Cheng, Chen Dong is a pseudonym)
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