A reporter from Shanghai Securities News recently learned that on the eve of the Spring Festival, a case of forged documents related to credit card “credit investigation and repair” was officially sentenced – illegal gangs were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment and fine for the crime of forging, trading official documents of state organs and forging seals of public institutions.
As one of the pillars of the retail business of commercial banks, under the background of consumption upgrading, the credit card industry has developed very rapidly in recent years. While accepting the legitimate complaints of cardholders, major banks also encounter many malicious complaints. For example, after some cardholders’ debts are overdue, they choose “overdue negotiation”, “credit investigation and repair” or “agency rights protection” to evade and scrap their debts. However, behind this is the routine “black and gray property intermediary” industry, and many bank credit card centers are troubled.
In the view of insiders, the sentencing of the above cases is of symbolic significance, which is of great deterrent and warning significance to various “black and gray property intermediaries” in the credit card industry, and also helps to solve the chaos such as credit card agency complaints.
“credit investigation and repair” advertisement leads to “black ash production”
Having no money to repay the “card debt”, but having the money to find someone to “repair” the bad credit investigation, the credit investigation failed to be repaired, and the “black ash property intermediary” was arrested by the police.
The reporter learned that before the Spring Festival, the above-mentioned cases had been sentenced by Lixia District Court of Jinan City, Shandong Province: the illegal gang was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment and fine for the crime of forging and trading official documents of state organs and forging seals of public institutions.
According to the summary of the case: due to the overdue of multiple credit cards, a credit card holder of China Merchants Bank found an agent intermediary through the “credit investigation and repair” advertisement and paid a service fee of 16800 yuan. This order has been circulated between intermediaries for several times. Finally, the intermediary Zheng contacted Hu and forged the official seal and supporting documents of the Public Security Bureau for the use of Zhang. Accompanied by the intermediary, Zhang went to the bank with forged documents to deal with bad credit investigation. After being seen through by the staff of the credit card center of China Merchants Bank, he called the police. After Jinan Lixia police received the police, they found three forged public security official documents on the scene and summoned the party Zhang to the police station.
Economic South police investigated in many ways, and finally arrested Hu who forged official documents in Hunan, and found more than 100 fake seals in his home. Recently, the suspect, Hu, was arrested for sale and forgery of official documents.
The final judgment of the court showed that Hu committed the crime of forging, buying and selling official documents of state organs and was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of one year and three months and a fine of 8000 yuan; Whoever commits the crime of forging the seal of an institution shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of one year and two months and fined 8000 yuan. It is decided to carry out fixed-term imprisonment of two years and two months; Zheng committed the crime of buying and selling official documents of state organs and was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of one year and three months and a fine of 8000 yuan.
helping others escape debts has become a business
The above-mentioned cases are just the tip of the iceberg of various “black and gray property intermediaries” in the credit card industry in recent years.
With the upgrading of consumption, the credit card business of major banks has ushered in rapid growth in recent years, and it is inevitable to receive various complaints from consumers. It is this kind of complaint that makes many “black ash industry intermediaries” read crooked scriptures and exploit loopholes.
According to the reporter, in addition to the aforementioned “credit investigation and repair”, the industry also undertakes a wide range of “businesses” such as “suspension of accounts”, “debt optimization”, “agency rights protection” and “agency complaints”. Reporters can easily find a large number of advertisements on Baidu, Taobao and other platforms by searching with relevant keywords.
In fact, since 2019, credit card agent complaints and other links have become an “industry”. Previously, Chen Dapeng, President of China Minsheng Banking Corp.Ltd(600016) Credit Card Center, said that discussions about which bank is more “talkative” can often be seen on the public platform, and banks considered to be “more concessions” will often be “set fire attack” and become the focus of malicious complaints. Even “sometimes solving a customer’s problem will bring more customers’ problems”.
But in essence, these are just to instigate consumers to ignore the contract agreement, fabricate facts, complain to financial supervision, letters and visits and other departments on behalf of consumers, prevent consumers from effectively communicating with supervision departments and financial institutions, and exert pressure by means of entanglement, litigation and visits, so as to achieve unreasonable demands such as evading and discarding personal debt, reducing interest and fees, long-term installment and so on.
Moreover, the above-mentioned “businesses” also hide many risks for consumers, including leading to the disclosure of consumers’ personal information, bad credit record or fraud, disturbing the regional business environment and affecting the normal financial order.
In the process of dealing with the above problems, banks have gradually explored some ways. For example, it can be identified through temsector script, highly consistent demands, specific complaint process and voiceprint information. However, the reality is that because the operation methods of illegal agency complaints are hidden and it is difficult to define evidence collection, the solution path of public security and judicial channels is not smooth enough.
Because of this, in the view of the industry, the sentencing of the above cases provides a way for the industry to solve such problems. Peng Kai, senior partner of Jincheng Tongda law firm, told reporters that the so-called “credit investigation and repair” itself is a non-conforming practice. As a consumer or cardholder, you can’t take chances. Basically, this kind of business is a scam, which may lead to the loss of your own property or be involved in a crime.
multiple regulatory actions to curb relevant chaos
The chaos of various “black property intermediaries” in the credit card industry has been highly valued by the regulatory authorities in recent years. The reporter noted that many places have successively issued risk tips or launched collaborative governance measures.
In addition to the CBRC level, local governments are taking active actions to curb the relevant chaos. It is reported that Hunan, Qinghai, Guangdong and other local financial regulatory authorities have jointly issued a notice to prevent the risk of agency complaints in the financial field.
On August 11, 2021, Hunan Provincial Local Financial Supervision Bureau, Hunan Provincial Public Security Department and Hunan banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau jointly issued a document to warn against the risk of “illegal agency complaints”, and reminded that illegal acts such as so-called agency rights protection will lead to the risk of consumer personal information disclosure, capital damage, loss of insurance guarantee and even fraud.
On January 11 this year, the CBRC Zhongshan regulatory branch, Zhongshan Financial Work Bureau, Zhongshan Public Security Bureau and Zhongshan Central Branch of the people’s Bank of China jointly issued a document pointing out that we should be vigilant against the risk of “acting to protect rights” and clearly warn that illegal social organizations or individuals use Internet forums, wechat circle of friends, online shopping platforms, social platforms Short videos and other channels release advertisements to help consumers “surrender in full”, “negotiate by stages” and “repair credit investigation”, encourage or entice financial consumers to entrust them with “agency complaints”, require consumers to provide sensitive information involving personal privacy such as ID card, insurance policy, bank card, mobile phone card and contact information, and charge high “agency rights protection” fees, The purpose is to seek high interests.
Under the warning notices issued by various parties and the linkage governance, the number of relevant complaints has decreased from last year’s data – the number of complaints involving credit card business in the third quarter of 2021 decreased to varying degrees year-on-year and month on month.
According to the banking consumption complaints released by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, in the third quarter of 2021, 44374 credit card business complaints were involved in banking consumption complaints, a year-on-year decrease of 8.3%, accounting for 50.8% of the total complaints. In the second quarter, there were 46273 complaints involving credit card business, a year-on-year increase of 37.2%, accounting for 54.8% of the total complaints.
