Vietnam’s state-controlled media on October 26 reported that nearly 1,000 Vietnamese people mortgaged their own pornographic pictures to borrow money, causing a stir in public opinion.
The case happened in Nam Tu Liem district, Hanoi. The local police have just issued a decision to probe the case and arrest the accused ones.
Borrowing with pornography?
According to the local media, on October 26, Tu Liem police probed the case, ordering temporary detention for Nguyen Thi Van Anh and Khuong Thi Tuyen, Bui Ngoc Thuy, and Dao Quoc Huy who are related to usury in civil transactions.
According to the investigation, from the end of December 2020, these suspected joined closed prostitution groups on social networks to advertise high-interest loans, according to Vietnamnet.
Those who want to borrow money must send a photo of their ID card, a portrait, a photo of the interface of their social network account, and especially a nude photo. If not, must provide mortgage phone password or login name, a social network account password, and iCloud account.
When they do not pay, these subjects will use these ‘collateral‘ assets to intimidate their victims.
According to Facebook Government Information, “expanding the investigation, polices discovered that through a personal account on the website mecash.vn, Van Anh and his wife had loaned nearly 1,000 people t with a total amount of more than over VND5 billion [$224,000]. The total amount of illicit profits from this activity is more than VND1.3 billion.”
According to Thanh Nien, Nam Tu Liem district police said that this is a new crime trick, appearing for the first time in the area. The victims are call-girls who need money but have no assets to trust.
This page adds that the police determined that from the beginning of May, the suspect and his wife had loaned money to a person in Nghe An seven times “with a total amount of VND163 million, with an interest rate of 10,000-20,000 VND/million. per day (about 365-730%/year).”
Copying China’s model?
Many comments on social media suggest that this type of lending has been around for a long time in China.
Tran Manh Kien criticized that: “Vietnamese people have the talent to copy world’s bad things. From state officials to ordinary people. From the intelligentsia to the uneducated. Same. So don’t criticize.”
This list is evidenced by an article in the Lao Dong newspaper with the title: “China: Mortgage loans with nude photos.” According to this article, hundreds of nude photos and videos of women used as collateral for loans on several online lending services in China were leaked.
And this person concluded: “The mortgage loan from nudity in Vietnam was actually learned from China. Vietnam didn’t learn anything good from China, but only learned bad things from foreigners.”
In another forum, Tran Minh Luong wrote: “I see this form comes from China. It seems to have existed for a few years, now it has been imported to Vietnam.”
As for the account with the Chinese character 志威, it states: “The thing about taking a nude photo of a citizen’s identity card to borrow money, it has been in China for many years, the integration story is only sooner or later. .”
‘The last step‘?
Some people think that perhaps they are in poverty because there is no job, no income, high prices after the epidemic has pushed many people into poverty.
Nguyen Than wrote: “People are too secretive, but it is better to get a loan like this than to risk something else!”
Lang Mo’s friend associated with the colonial context in Vietnam: “Thought this story only existed in the context of Ngo Tat To, Vu Trong Phung…before 1945… Who knows, it is a reality in today’s time. … How tragic!”
“The lenders are very profitable. Really, if they don’t sell their body and pay, they’ll panic and kill themselves too. I’ve seen many scenes of people gathering because they missed out on this gang debt,” Bich Ngoc wrote.
There are opinions that thousands of people accept to use their “erotic images” as collateral, which seems to have partly revealed the dignity of a part of Vietnamese people.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
Source: https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/vietnam-59060910
