It really baffles me how Michael Chong can deal with the loan sharks and know of their operations. If Michael Chong is a nobody and knows so much, why aren’t the police doing anything? I remember posting a video on how posters of loan shark advert were hung in front of a police station. Well, Michael Chong, I am sure you have brains to come up with strategies to terminate the loan sharks indefinitely.
Why can’t the police arrest the contractors and find out who the loan sharks are?
Therer is something fishy about you Michael Chong and also the police in Malaysia. All because This is UMNO. This is Barisan Nasional.
Loan sharks restrategise
PETALING JAYA (Jan 13, 2009) : When the going gets tough, loan sharks get going.With the frequent clampdowns on illegal money lending activities, loan sharks in the Klang Valley are restrategising their business models.
theSun learnt that several loan sharks have “amalgamated” their “financing” business with housing renovation contractors to come up with a new business concept – renovate first, pay later.
These loan sharks and contractors are fast making in-roads with their new concept, and how they go about making money is simple.
Loan shark runners are positioned in newly completed projects, especially apartments and shop offices, to wait for unit owners to arrive to check on their properties.
Peak time for business is normally after keys to the properties are handed to the owners once a certificate of fitness is issued by local authorities.
Property owners who don’t have sufficient funds are approached by sweet-talking runners who offer them renovation services.
Lack of funds is no reason to worry, they are told. Contractors can go ahead and start work first.
Owners can ask to have their units painted and installed with grilles, build kitchen cabinets and tile – all without paying a single sen upfront.
The loan sharks will “make payment” to the contractors and the property owners have to make monthly or weekly instalment payments to the “illegal moneylenders”.
Those who wish to get their units renovated have to submit their credit cards, bank books and ATM cards to the loan sharks.
In the event an outside contractors come into project sites where the loan shark runners are stationed, then there is confrontation.
Often, outsiders will not come in to do business on turf grounds “conquered” by the runners due to fear.
And most property owners refuse to complain such activities to the authorities, fearing their properties might be damaged, vandalised or other forms of reprisals.
theSun learnt that the menace is widespread in southern parts of the city, such as Bandar Sri Petaling, Desa Petaling, Salak Selatan and other areas where there is a mushrooming number of new projects.
The MCA Public Services and Complaints Department, which received more than 600 loan shark cases involving more than RM54 million last year, is equally aware and concern with this growing menace.
Its head Datuk Michael Choong said property owners harrassed by loan sharks offering eash payment schemes for renovation works must report their activities.
“These unscrupulous contractors behave like gangsters, preventing others from taking up jobs in their ‘area of control’. Some even had the audacity to put up tables in newly completed project site in a bid to ‘force’ owners and tenants to take up their renovation services.
“I urge those who face such problems to lodge police reports. We are also willing to help anyone facing such problems by raising it with the relevant authorities, including the developers.
“While the problem of loan sharks teaming up with renovation contractors is something new, efforts must be taken by all parties to ensure it doesn’t become a menace to society,” said Chong.
How to exterminate loan sharks if they are provided with “free advertising notice boards” by DBKL? Many of the road signs including traffic signs are fully covered with stickers of loan sharks offering “financial assistance”. If at all the police care to nab them, they can always trace these people because their handphone numbers are on these stickers. Since all handphones are registered these days, it would not be difficult to track them down.
yup! very true. That stupid Lim Keng Aik asked malaysians to register all pre-paid mobile phones. So, if all mobile phone users are registered, why police cannot control the loan sharks.
Bodoh, the police are sleeping and just like what Namewee wrote in his famous song “Negarakuku”, they only wake up in the presence of RM, RM and RM! And when they cannot solve any crime, the IGP can only come up with one stupid excuse, “The police force is shorthanded”. This stupid statement should not have been made public at all and in fact should be CLASSIFIED information. Do you know the consequences of these words which came through the mouth of the IGP? It is as good as an ASSURANCE by the police that “Carry on with whatever crime you want, we cannot catch you!”
Just wondered why the IGP was not charged under the famous OSA!