With the recession and retrenchment, some are driven to desperation and had to borrow money from loansharks who charged an exorbitant interest. What is disturbing is that loansharks no longer confined their debt collection arm twisting techniques to the defaulting borrower, but readily extent and expand the harrassment to the neighbours as well.
I have come across a number of cases where neighbours’ doors and walls were splashed with paint, demanding payment. And these innocent neighbours had installed hidden cameras to catch the culprits. I have also encountered cases where the defaulting borrower had already moved out of the house a year ago but had not updated the address. Hence the loanshark came calling, harrassing the innocent party.
So what can you do if you are harrassed and you are the innocent party. Unfortunately not too much. Call the police and make a police report. Avoid antagonising the loanshark or confronting them as it may put you in danger.
Having said that, I have customers who had taken the proactive steps of putting notices and posters on the wall, to inform the loanshark and neighbours that they are not the one who had borrowed the money. I have some customers contacted the loanshark to explain the situation. And many of these customers have also installed CCTV Cameras to deter as well as help police identify the culprit.
Beyond that, there isn’t too much you can do to stop the harrassment until either they are caught or they caught up with the borrower. Sometimes the wait can be frustrating. Check out this post for more information.
