On July 7, the Investigation Agency of the Bac Giang Provincial Police investigated, prosecuted, and detained Do Thanh Ton (born in 2000, in Dong Son, Tam Diep City, Ninh Binh Province); Vu Van Phong (born in 2004, in Hong Phong, Thanh Mien District, Hai Duong Province); Dao Van Thai (born in 1993, in Vu Ban, Doan Hung District, Phu Tho Province), along with ten others for the act of “Online loan sharking in civil transactions.”
Previously, on June 24, 60 police officers simultaneously searched three workplaces in Hanoi and Ninh Binh of a group conducting illegal online lending business, seizing 158 iPhones of various models and five Internet transmission devices…
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The investigation results determined that this group had lent money to more than 30,000 people by accepting their iPhones as collateral through iCloud accounts. The interest rates ranged from 319% to 629%, tens of times higher than the permitted interest rates in civil transactions. The loan amounts varied from a few million to a few tens of million Vietnamese Dong, depending on the model and age of the borrower’s iPhone.
The borrowers were required to log out of their iCloud accounts on their phones and then log in using the iCloud account provided by the loan sharks. This gave the lenders control over the borrowers’ information and devices.
Additionally, borrowers had to provide their ID card photos, portrait photos, phone numbers, contacts, permanent residence addresses, occupations, current workplaces, current addresses, parents’ or spouses’ names, and Facebook accounts of relatives. They also had to disclose their bank account information.
Once the provided information was verified, the lenders would disburse the loan after deducting interest for the first 3 to 10 days and a 5% processing fee. The transactions were conducted via bank transfers. If borrowers failed to repay the loan as per the agreed schedule and amount, their iPhones would be locked remotely through iCloud. The devices would only be unlocked once the borrowers made the required payments.
Upon full repayment of the loan, the borrowers would be allowed to log out of the loan sharks’ iCloud account.
According to the Bac Giang Provincial Police, the managers and employees of this illegal lending group earned a monthly salary of 12 million VND. The technicians, who were in charge of communicating with collaborators, evaluating customers, providing technical support, sending reminders, and collecting debts, received a monthly salary of 8 million VND. The collaborators, who posted advertising articles about the lending service on social networks and collected borrowers’ information, were entitled to 25-30% of the successful loan value.
Lieutenant Chu Van Hieu, Deputy Head of the Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Division, Bac Giang Provincial Police, stated: “Borrowing money by pledging an iCloud account entails numerous risks. Borrowers may have their data and personal information collected, and pledging an iCloud account means giving access to their iPhone, including photos, videos, and contacts.”
