<Anchor> It



's friendly economy time.

Reporter Han Ji-yeon is also here today (the 19th).

Are you saying that advertisements like 'I will lend you money' are popular these days for teenagers?



<Reporter>



Yes, this year alone, there were over 3,000 cases. Parents with young children should take a good look.



There are many cases where pocket money is not enough for middle and high school students to buy idol goods, concert tickets, and game items that they are interested in, but they are easily exposed to illegal proxy deposits, so-called 'delivery' advertisements, which claim to borrow tens of thousands of won and receive high interest rates.



What you see on the screen is a proxy deposit advertisement that is actually running on social media.



You are asked to provide personal information such as your ID, student ID photo, and your phone number as well as your parents' phone number.



They do not hesitate to say, "If you don't pay back, I'll go home" and "It's good to be prepared when you lose contact."



Also, it is said that you will be charged a tardiness fee, which means interest, and a late fee equivalent to arrears.



My belly button is bigger than my belly. I borrow about 100,000 won for two days or a week, but I get 20-50% of the principal as interest. In some cases, they received



Converted to an annual interest rate, that's about 5,000%.

Secondary damage is also significant.



If you can't repay the money, you may leak personal information to SNS, threaten them with dozens of phone calls a day, or force them to borrow more, potentially exposing teenagers to crime.



<Anchor>



But what's even more problematic is that these ads have increased more recently?



<Reporter>



Yes, it has more than doubled in the past few years, from 1,200 cases in 2019 to 2,500 and 2,800 cases in 2020 and last year, respectively, and this year it exceeded 3,000.



Compared to this increase in advertisements, there were not many actual reports of damage. There was only 1 case in 2019, 4 cases in 2020, and only 1 case last year, and there are no reports this year.



Just because nothing has been reported doesn't mean there is no damage.

The fact that these advertisements continue to show means that the business is doing well.



However, it is explained that there is an aspect that teenagers cannot properly report because the proxy deposit is made illegally, and it is difficult to conduct a fact-finding investigation because it is done negatively under the guise of a friend or acquaintance.



There are also claims that the Financial Supervisory Service, which should be cracking down on such things, has not done its job properly.



According to data from Rep. Yang Jeong-sook's office, the FSS set a budget of 226 million won in 2019 in the name of preventing illegal proxy deposits, and has set a budget of 200 million won every year since then.



However, when I looked at where the budget was actually spent, it turned out that there was nothing at all other than four life guidance activities in 2020 and 165 billion won in educational video production costs.



<Anchor>



Do you think this behavior of lending money to young people and now receiving a lot of interest is in a blind spot under the law?



<Reporter>



Yes, under the current law, less than 100,000 won in principal is considered a small amount of money, in which case there is no interest limit.



There are a lot of transactions where the proxy deposit is less than 100,000 won.

The statutory maximum interest rate is 20% per annum, but there are many cases of abuse that do not apply.



So, last year, the National Assembly proposed a law to apply the legal maximum interest rate if the sum of the principal and interest exceeds 100,000 won, but it is currently pending.



Youth must be protected by the law, and the economic concept must be grasped early on, but there are many youths who do not take the idea of ​​debt itself seriously.



You shouldn't be traumatized by the pressure of debt from an early age.



In order to prevent damage, financial education for youth should be thoroughly implemented.

In addition, enforcement of small-value proxy deposits should be strengthened.