Just because in the address book of the borrower, some irrelevant "acquaintances" are troubled by the collection of SMS and phone calls
Have you been collected if you didn't borrow online loans?
Our reporter Shi Lanna, "Workers' Daily" (Edition 04, September 27, 2021)
"Wu XX, applying for a 1,000 yuan loan through the online loan platform has repeatedly reminded that it has not been processed. If it is not processed within 24 hours, the law firm will package it and report it to the people’s court at the place of residence for processing. The penalty for late payment is about 13,650 yuan. It’s up to you.” In the few years since a colleague surnamed Wu overdue his online loan, Mr. Lin from Fujian has received a lot of text messages similar to this kind of loan collection, and the sender number of the text message changes frequently, making it difficult to identify and shield.
A reporter from the Workers’ Daily found that even though the online loan was not related to him, the borrower did not set himself up as an emergency contact, and some unrelated “acquaintances” were still troubled by collection.
Innocent contacts troubled by collections
"In addition to text messages, there are also collection calls. I usually ask if I know the borrower and ask me to contact the borrower to deal with it. Otherwise, I have to go through legal procedures." Several collection calls a month have troubled Mr. Lin. Once I received a dunning call and hung up. As a result, I received dozens of SMS verification codes bombing as soon as I put down my phone."
In March of this year, Mr. Huang from Yueyang, Hunan, borrowed 7,000 yuan from an online loan platform and agreed to repay the loan in three installments.
After the first two installments were returned, Mr. Huang failed to repay the third installment on time.
In August, his family received a reminder text message and a lawyer's letter.
On the black cat complaint platform, "explosive address book", "harassing call", and "violent collection" are high-frequency words against online loan platform complaints.
Among them, there were more than 45,000 complaints related to the "explosive address book".
Some complainants even claimed that they never knew the borrower sought by the online lending platform, but were harassed for no reason.
On the other hand, the borrower who is called for collection believes that the collection of arrears of his online loan from relatives and friends has greatly affected his personal reputation.
Just because you are in the address book
Obviously there is no connection with online loan borrowings, why do "acquaintances" receive notice of collection?
"You need to provide emergency contact information or mobile phone address book. At the same time, you authorize us to provide you with SMS reminders and phone calls when the borrower loses contact, overdue and other emergency situations." "The platform can use users The information obtained through submission or authorization is used for overdue accounting reminders or collection services. If this causes adverse effects on users, the platform will not be responsible."...Some online loan APPs will require authorization to read the address book when registering. The collection of irrelevant "acquaintances" is written in the user agreement. If the user clicks "disagree", the online loan app "cannot provide you with services".
A customer service staff of an online lending platform confirmed that the use of borrowing business must go through the authorization process. If the loan is repaid normally, it will not affect the borrower and the contact person. Once the loan is overdue, the platform may affect the contact person in the address book. Carry out collection to encourage the borrower to repay the loan as soon as possible.
In this regard, Beijing Xingzhu Law Firm partner and lawyer Hao Xudong said that in addition to the consent of the person being collected, the collection and use of personal information by network operators must also follow the principles of lawfulness, fairness, and necessity.
According to the "Required Information Specification for Basic Business Functions of Mobile Internet Applications", financial institutions can require users to manually enter two emergency contact information in order to dunning when the borrower fails to repay the loan overdue, instead of forcing the user's communication to be read record.
Wangdai APP shall not refuse to provide services due to the user's refusal to authorize the collection of irrelevant or excessive information.
Harassing unrelated "acquaintances" is illegal collection
Nie Yangcheng, a lawyer at Beijing Jinzhong Law Firm, believes that the frequent sending of collection text messages and calls to collection calls to contacts in the address book who have not been set up as emergency contacts can be regarded as illegal collections.
Relevant laws, regulations and industry conventions have already restricted the collection of debts from unrelated third parties.
For example, the "Internet Finance Overdue Debt Collection Self-Discipline Convention (for Trial Implementation)" stipulates that debt collection shall not harass irrelevant persons, and shall not disclose the debtor's debt, overdue, breach of contract and other personal information to persons other than the debtor.
Nie Yangcheng explained that the borrower borrowed from the online lending platform and formed a loan contract relationship with the platform.
According to the relativity of the contract, disputes arising from the borrower's failure to repay the loan on time should be settled through negotiation between the online lending platform and the borrower, and should not involve a third party that has nothing to do with it.
He suggested that if irrelevant "acquaintances" frequently receive collection text messages or calls, they can retain relevant evidence, such as collection text messages screenshots, collection call recordings, and complaints and reports to the China Internet Financial Reporting Information Platform when necessary.
"In addition to financial institutions, outsourcing collection companies should also be included in the scope of industry self-discipline. The industry should restrict illegal collection behaviors through self-discipline management measures such as ordering rectification, warning interviews, public notification of criticism, compulsory training and education." Hao Xudong said .