The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it will conduct intensive crackdowns on illegal lending activities around traditional markets until the end of next month, in preparation for the Lunar New Year holiday. Investigators from the city’s Civil Safety Investigation Bureau will be deployed for this operation, focusing on illegal high-interest daily loans with annual interest rates exceeding 20%, lending by unregistered lenders, and loan advertisements distributed via street flyers and online.
The city is particularly vigilant about short-term high-interest daily loans targeting market merchants who need quick cash, and these activities will be a focal point of the crackdown.
Seoul plans to actively use its ‘Debt Killer System’ to block illegal loan advertisements. This system works by making calls to illegal loan businesses every three seconds to keep the line busy continuously.
The city emphasized the importance of public reports due to the difficulty in identifying illegal lending operations, which often employ non-face-to-face methods such as phone calls, text messages, and burner phones.
Reports related to illegal lending can be made to the Civil Infringement Crime Report Center or the Fair Trade Comprehensive Counseling Center. Informants may receive a reward of up to 200 million KRW if their report is deemed to contribute to public interest enhancement, following a review.
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