Chinese debt collectors jailed for cyberbullying under ‘soft violence’ laws

A Beijing court has jailed eight debt collectors for cyber-bullying people who owed them money. The facts of the case are nasty: debtors were bombarded with text messages, robo-calls, sending threatening videos on WeChat and use of “information bombing software”. Those messages included personal insults and other unsavoury …

[Quinch]

As the old joke goes....

The government hates competition.

[sanmigueelbeer]

Re: I love debt collectors...

And then I remember that I *CAN'T* go to Hell, Satan's got a permanent restraining order out against me & I'm not even allowed in the lobby.

Reminds me of a t-shirt: Heaven don't want me and hell is afraid I might take over.

[tip pc]

Re: I love debt collectors...

“ There's nothing you can say or do that could ever be worse than what my ex-wife put me through.”

What if they send in the ex wife?

[Mike 137]

jailed under 'soft violence' laws

Apparently only hard violence is acceptable.

[Jimmy2Cows]

Re: jailed under 'soft violence' laws

Pick your cliché...

Do as we say, not as we do.

One rule for us, another for them.

Your government is working in your best interests.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Jimmy2Cows - Re: jailed under 'soft violence' laws

Anyway, they have to imprison a hell lot of people for whatever reason in order to reach parity with US.

[lglethal]

Ok serious problem but...

...and trying to spook people by playing funereal music.

Thats a weirdly specific thing to ban. Is that really something that happens a lot in China?

[FlamingDeath]

I don't think China knows the meaning

of debt, with their billion+ population and climbing

[RM Myers]

"Those laws were intended to tackle ... anti-social acts [Including throwing faeces

Well, that answers the question about what kind of sh*t laws will be passed next!

[Anonymous Coward]

Genital Herpes

Debt collectors are the genital herpes of telemarketing. Just when you've eliminated one infection, another pops out.

[Jason Hindle]

It's worse than that

They also had a system of loans called Naked Loans:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/15/chinas-naked-loans-force-female-students-to-bare-all-in-return-for-more-cash

[Anonymous Coward]

Debt Collector scams in the US

There are several debt collector scams in the US with generic business licenses registered to PO box in New York that threaten people with lawsuits and court summons for credit card debt that is either non-existent or is long past the 7 year statute of limitations.

They call and leave voicemails with a bogus case number and a phone number for their their victims to call them back.

I have spoken to a few of these scammers that always answer their phone with "Lawyers office".

They use public information and often have the last four digits of their victims SSN to make their claims more legitimate.

When you call them out on their BS and question the alleged debt they always respond with "See you in court, good luck".

I have been calling one of these scammers every 12 months or so taunting them that we still haven't received the summons to court yet.

I wish the laws in the US would mirror that of China in dealing with these scumbags.

[JCitizen]

Re: Debt Collector scams in the US

All I can say is debtor harassment is illegal in my state, and the Attorney General has successfully prosecuted several of them.