Daniel Zhang joined a group chat in an online loan bar called "CheerIng Strangers Together," where there was a more extreme story: a group friend's lover was in labor and was hospitalized in the hospital, and the collection phone call was made to the whole family, including his lover. Paradoxically, the story reassured him that he wasn't the worst one.
Text | Xu Qing
Edit | Golden turn
Operational | Linta
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="119" > heartbreak story</h1>
Open Baidu Tieba and search for "online loan bar", Chinese the world's largest online loan exchange community has emerged.
2545286 "online lenders" gathered here and published 8442571 posts in total. Tieba homepage is occupied by eye-catching pictures, most of which are online loan advertisements with yellow characters on a black background or red characters on a blue background: do not look at any, you can get down 20w on the same day. There are also colorful board game invitations: the first deposit is more preferential, and the re-deposit is sent every day. There is even a thick round font of Tiffany blue, which is deliberately designed to express the need for women: surrogacy companies, 220,000 to 270,000 surrogate mothers.
If you have patience, after turning to the 20 pages of Tieba Bar, you can see the broken life here.
Some people lost their jobs because of the epidemic, found an online part-time job in order to support their families, mistakenly entered online gambling, and lost 600,000 yuan in a week, of which 500,000 came from online loans; a bar friend from Dongguan City, who failed to do business, owed 200,000 online loans, was "exploded" by the collection company, and became a joke in the classmate group; young women were recommended for multiple projects in plastic surgery hospitals, learned that she had no money, and the hospital sales enthusiastically helped her to do 30,000 yuan of online loans; Li Tong, a post-95 generation from Yunnan, because of motorcycle brake failure After becoming paraplegic disabled and owed 300,000 online loans for treatment, his daughter was born.
In the mire of the Internet loan bar, their lives are sinking.
After the 90s, Akin and the post-80s Daniel Zhang are also the two protagonists in the sinking story. They don't know each other, but there are similarities.
Akin is from the countryside of Jining, Shandong Province, and Daniel Zhang's hometown is in the countryside of Heyuan, Guangdong. Akin, 22, went to Jinan three years ago to sell real estate and sell office buildings to business owners. Daniel Zhang, 31 years old, came to Guangzhou more than a decade ago to sell real estate and sell houses to ordinary people.
Akin's native family was not wealthy. When he was 3 years old, his parents divorced, he was raised by his grandparents, and the family lived by growing wheat and corn. Daniel Zhang family was also in difficulty, and before coming to Guangzhou, his parents owed tens of thousands of debts for renovating the old house.
None of them went to college, entered the society when they were minors, and when they first arrived in the big city, they were introduced by relatives and friends in their hometowns, and they found a job that did not have a low threshold, and the social circle was also concentrated in this range. They have a similar hobby – playing games. Akin likes League of Legends, Daniel Zhang prefers mobile games like Glory of Kings. They are all senior users of Tieba and the first time they registered an account was around junior high school and high school.
But there are also differences. Akin has fair skin, is about 1.8 meters tall, and is the most popular "tin foil hot", wearing a denim jacket and canvas shoes. Someone once said that he looked like the magician Liu Qian. He did not start a family, rented alone in the suburbs of Jinan, 10 square meters of room, "ins wind", a monthly rent of 1000 yuan. His job was not stable, and in three years he worked on real estate sales, bar liquor sales, and truck rental sales. The longest job done in a year, electric vehicles are the most commonly used means of travel. After work, he would go to the Internet café with his friends to queue up, or find a barbecue, KTV, bar, and continue the nightlife.
Daniel Zhang, who has worked for more than ten years, is more inclined to be stable, and he has formed his own small family. In 2018, he bought a small house of 43 square meters in Guangzhou, and a car of about 100,000 yuan, correspondingly, carrying a monthly mortgage of 4,000 yuan and a car loan of 2,000 yuan. He was married and had children 3 years ago.
These two people with similar growth backgrounds, but at different stages of life, have been exposed to online loans and have also come to online loan bars.
▲ Photo / Visual China
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="134" > collapse</h1>
Everyone who comes to the Internet loan bar, the first post in this post bar is almost like this: Collected, what should I do?
Akin is no exception. Someone put his face on the face of a man in a car accident, blurred with blood and flesh, and there were two words and an exclamation point on it: Pay back!
The photo was posted to Akin's phone. It was an afternoon in April 2019, about 6 hours ago, a strange man called Akin to tell him that he needed to pay off the online loan before 6:00 p.m., otherwise he would "blow up your address book" and "go to your hometown to investigate." At the thought of this, Akin felt fear, his heart beating faster, and his palms sweating. "I asked if it was okay to be a few days late? He said no, I have seen too many people like you, saying that today is today. ”
Daniel Zhang was directly blown up in the address book. In October last year, he was driving on the road when he received a call from his sister, who worked in a public institution in his hometown: "How can such a big person still owe online loans?" So ignorant? Can you be considerate and considerate of me? ”
In the eyes of all those who owe online loans, collection is not terrible, and the most terrible thing is that they are known to their families. Whether it is "exploding the address book" or "going to the hometown to investigate", it means that the social image that he once exported collapsed, and the expectations and recognition of his family were disappointed.
▲ A reminder SMS received by the borrower. Figure / Courtesy of the interviewee
In the eyes of relatives in his hometown, Daniel Zhang is a model of "struggling in a big city", although there is no Guangzhou hukou, he has a job here with "tens of thousands of incomes", and he also bought a house, a car, formed a family, and his children are also educated in Guangzhou, which means that he has "gained a firm foothold" in Guangzhou.
Ah Jin is also famous in his hometown, the first year of work in the Spring Festival, he bought gifts to go home, left 1,000 yuan for his grandparents, and spent 600 yuan to buy a belt for his father.
Daniel Zhang and Akin's life, there can be no risk.
When he first did real estate sales, Ah Jin traded two orders a month, and his salary could be tens of thousands, but in the first half of 2018, when he encountered the off-season of the industry, his income plummeted to 3,000 yuan per month. His consumption habits did not change with income, and once he sent a small birthday, Akin invited guests, took four people to the best local bar, and drank 5,000 yuan a night.
From then on, Ah Jin began to borrow online loans. Perhaps because of his young age, he downloaded several common online loan APP, because there is no loan qualification, the application failed, but woke up to receive several text messages from other platforms, almost all of which are "you have xx million quota to collect", after this, more and more text messages, the most a day there are more than twenty.
Ah Jin downloaded the "Gome Easy Card", filled in the information, and released the money in less than half an hour. The quota of Gome Easy Card is used higher and higher, from 20,000 to 50,000. Ah Jin did not know the account, 3 months passed, he owed more than 20,000 yuan, divided into 12 installments, each month to repay 2700 yuan.
Daniel Zhang the reasons for borrowing online is more complicated. In the second half of 2019, changes in real estate policy halved his salary to about 4,000 yuan. Inside the family, the wife's income is used for daily expenses to repay the mortgage and car loan, and the income Daniel Zhang is used for daily expenses, but the son's early education class costs 5,000 yuan a month. In the face of the prevalence of influenza in Guangzhou, my son got the flu and pneumonia, and it cost one or two thousand to go to the hospital.
Daniel Zhang tried to drive a ride, get up one hour early and return two hours late every day, and earn 60 yuan more a day. On the cash withdrawal page of the hitchhiker, there are also advertisements for paipai loans. After repeatedly going to the hospital more than a dozen times, he was short of money again, and Daniel Zhang borrowed 3,000 yuan directly from the paipai loan. When the epidemic came, his income fell even lower, the more money he owed, and a year passed, rolling to more than 100,000.
It was the fastest growing years of domestic Internet finance, and invisible catchers grabbed everyone's big data information to find potential online lending users. Online loan advertisements are overwhelming, the body of shared bicycles, the payment pages of Meituan takeaway and JD.com, elevator advertisements, and pop-up windows of video websites, rolling over the enthusiasm of capital to lend money to ordinary people. They all have seemingly amiable names: "micro-particle loans", "installment music", "pleasant loans", "you and me loans", and there are also seemingly modest interest rates, which replace the 18% annual interest rate with a daily interest rate of 0.05%.
Both Ah Jin and Daniel Zhang slipped from borrowing online loans to overdue online loans, and then were collected. It is the fear of collection that makes them come to the Internet loan bar to find the same kind. Ah Jin met a boy of the same age, and also owed an online loan, "did not talk about anything special, the daily is to communicate the situation of both sides", but he still felt a little comfort, at least in the Internet loan bar, they can hug the group to keep warm.
After posting, there are bar friends in the Internet loan bar to comfort Ah Jin and Daniel Zhang, the regular platform can negotiate the repayment date, if not negotiated, "consume, consume to can negotiate"; irregular collection methods are "frightening people", the law prohibits, if you really go to the door can call the police; even if the real court summons down, for people who do not have money, "restrict high consumption" What is the impact?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="154" > sink</h1>
Compared with the "harmony" in the Internet loan bar, the disappointment of the family is more violent.
The first to receive the collection call were my uncle and cousin, who worked in Jinan, and they found Ah Jin and called the Family Group WeChat phone. Grandpa asked, "How can you owe money?" Akin didn't say a word. Uncle Da also asked: "Jinan prices are OK, 3,000 yuan is enough to spend, right?" Akin still didn't speak. The reason for not speaking is: "If I say why, they will definitely think that I owe money because I 'ate, drank and had fun' with my friends." ”
Next, the adults made a decision, the consequences of the online loan were increased, and the father said: "Let him come back, come back and don't go out." ”
Akin didn't go home, he hoped to "deal with it himself, deal with it and then go back." His grandparents had no income, and he couldn't ask them to help pay off the loan. His parents, who only see him once or twice a year, are a bit distant for him, and in his mother's WeChat chat, he will use "you", and he does not need to talk to his father, because "I haven't talked much".
In June, Akin quit the rental house and hid in a friend's house. "During that time, I couldn't sleep almost every night, and I didn't dare to look at my mobile phone during the day, for fear that after opening it, it was all collection calls and text messages." He was also afraid that his colleagues would know, so he directly quit his job, deleted his colleague's WeChat, and the Internet loan bar became the only place where Ah Jin could contact people.
With no source of income and fear of contact with the outside world, Akin thought of a temporary solution: to support the loan with a loan.
In online lending bars, it is also a stopgap measure for most people to take a loan. A bar friend that Ah Jin knew, at the same time borrowed six or seven platforms of online loans, one platform loaned, to repay another, another loan, and then to repay the next, online loans end to end, forming a perfect closed loop, he even listed a table, accurately set the monthly repayment plan.
But for Ah Jin, receiving a collection call means that his credit report has "spent", and the regular online lending platform will no longer lend him. The picture advertisement of "do not look at the credit report, the next money of the day" in the Internet loan bar attracted him.
In the early hours of the morning when he couldn't sleep, Ah Jin entered the URL in the browser, filled in the mobile phone number and verification code, and downloaded an online loan APP that had never heard of the name. After registering an account, the platform showed that his limit was 2,000 yuan, a finger, without any review, and soon, he received a bank text message, arriving at 1,000 yuan.
His joy turned into doubt: the APP showed that he would pay back 2,000 yuan after 7 days. He found the platform customer service and asked if he could return it, and the other party said no. "They're very tough, which means that no matter what, you get on this thief ship, then you can't get off."
Seven days later, Ah Jin was collected because he was overdue again, and he returned to the Internet loan bar to find a new way to borrow money. In those advertisements, he found a layer of sinking links, that is, a person who borrows online loans, in turn, will walk the road: credit cards - ordinary online loans - high artillery - IOUs - mobile phone ID loans.
Credit cards and ordinary online loans are well understood, "high artillery", also known as "black online loans", its other name is "714", 7 and 14 is the number of repayment days. These platforms often deduct 20%-30% of the principal of the loan when borrowing, and in the form of "beheading interest", "late fee", "handling fee", etc., and more extremely, it can reach 50%.
"IOUs" use a more roundabout way. On the "Loan Treasure" platform, there is a "loan supermarket" that can "borrow quickly" and borrow from 2,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan in 10 minutes to one day. Its more important function is to "punch IOUs", which provide online electronic agreements with legal benefits for borrowers and lenders.
"IOUs" lenders tend to evaluate the amount of money they lend through address book information and call logs, and the more contacts they have, the more intimate they are, and the more money they can borrow. But this convenience requires a higher price: borrowing 1,000 yuan, you need to pay back 2,500 yuan in 7 days. Akin commented: "Even usury is ashamed of himself. ”
Compared with "high artillery" and "IOUs", mobile phone ID loans do not require any qualifications or address book information of users, and there is an Apple mobile phone. Users use their Apple ID as collateral, tie up the LENDer's ID, and can borrow about 500 yuan to 1000 yuan.
Along this link from top to bottom, the requirements for borrowers' qualifications are getting lower and lower, but the interest rates are correspondingly getting higher and higher, and the means of collection are becoming more and more violent, from "calling you to death" to "bursting the address book" to using "ID to lock your mobile phone", a more urgent demand for repayment is created, pushing people like Akin down the link and continuing to borrow money.
When they slide to the bottom of the link, they face greater risk. If the "anti-aircraft gun" or "IOU" is overdue, a fine of about 40 yuan to 230 yuan will be generated every day. It has been overdue, and thousands of pieces can roll into hundreds of thousands in a few months. An Internet loan bar friend was blackmailed when borrowing ID loans, and needed to pay money to "redeem" his mobile phone ID.
▲ Advertisement for mobile phone ID loan in Tieba. Photo / Baidu Tieba Bar
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="175" >Who is the liar? </h1>
In the online loan bar, Ah Jin was cheated twice.
A bar friend private message Ah Jin, as long as you pay a membership fee of 599 yuan, you can "online loan repayment", help him plan a repayment plan, and also borrow an online loan with a lower interest rate. Ah Jin hesitated for two days, plus a QQ number, just after the transfer was completed, he was blocked by the other party.
When he returned to the online loan bar, he changed his mind and posted for help: "Is there any way to make money?" "Someone in the Internet loan bar private message him, you can go to the "Cannon Community" to see.
It is a place where the number of people is not as large as that of online loan bars, but the information is more concentrated. Here, Akin really found a way to make money, and a "zealous stranger" taught him to do game promotion and pull people's heads back to the commission. "Much like A pyramid scheme, I get an invitation code, and the people who download the game through this code are all of my downline. I pull a person with a commission of more than ten yuan, and the person who pulls in offline, a person returns me a share of 5 yuan -10 yuan. ”
For a whole month, Ah Jin posted in the Online Loan Bar, pulling people to "work part-time online" with him, earning 1500 yuan. But then, he pulled dozens of more people, and before he could receive a commission, the "enthusiastic stranger" disappeared completely.
Daniel Zhang have also encountered scammers. In the original "particularly harmonious" group, a person added him, said that "there are channel loans, no need to check the credit", after careful chat, only to find out that it is "to deceive you to borrow usurious loans to repay online loans". Perhaps because of the greater social experience, Daniel Zhang avoid being deceived.
The scam that Akin and Daniel Zhang encounter is just the tip of the iceberg. In the online loan bar, being deceived is like a trial of the novice village in the game, after which you will see a more complex human nature - some people turn from being deceived to let others be deceived.
Li Tong once believed in the advertisement of "repayment" in the Internet loan bar, and after paying two hundred yuan of membership fees, he found that he had been deceived. After that, he continued to post "ask for a belt", hoping that someone would teach him to make money in the Internet loan bar. A few months later, he sent another one: "If you want to make pocket money, look here, +V." It seems that he has embarked on a different path.
▲ The "debt planner" person in Tieba. Photo / Baidu Tieba Bar
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="186" > leave</h1>
One day in June, a fierce scolding battle was staged in a WeChat group chat at an online loan bar.
An online loan collector mixed into a group chat and released swear information at a rate of three times a second: "There is no pig appearance, but there is a pig's IQ", "What breed are you, how are you so fierce", "In the zoo, see things and think of people, see what you think of you" and so on.
As a counterattack, the group friends successively sent emojis such as "collection or you are bullish", brushed up the chat history, and @ the group owner kicked people. When the group finally calmed down, someone said: "Actually, think about it, it's quite pitiful to do dog urging." ”
If there are people who are afraid or regret when they first enter the online loan bar, then after a period of time, disappointment and despair will replace these emotions. Collection is no longer terrible, online loans are no longer personal fault, and those who once felt that "owing money and losing people" suddenly became righteous and strong, occupying the moral high ground.
Some people even reversed direction and pulled up the wool of online loans.
Internet loan bars have a set of special terms, "high artillery" is a usury loan, "mouth" refers to unexpected lending qualifications. Originally, many people "spent" on credit and were rejected by "high artillery", but for various reasons, "high artillery" may reduce the requirements for user qualifications, or loopholes, easy to lend, so it is called "water release".
Whenever there is a new "mouth", some people say in the tieba and group chat that "there is another mouth to release water", and everyone rushes up to borrow money, but no one plans to repay the money. Akin explained, "The credit report is gone, the address book is broken, there is nothing to worry about will happen again, so the money is a windfall, and the platform lending is like 'paying wages'." ”
▲ Someone in Tieba showed himself the "wool" from the platform "Xue". Photo / Baidu Tieba Bar
Seeing the successful "water release" people, Akin also kind of wanted to try, perhaps the simple values of his grandparents affected him, and he had not yet put it into action.
In the 2019 Mid-Autumn Festival, Akin went home. Before this, Gome's online loan was transferred to the "high artillery", "IOU" and "ID loan" along the link, he found a law firm that provided free consultation, and the lawyer told him that these online loans were not legal and compliant, could not be repaid, and could be called to the police in case of violent collection. Akin relayed the lawyer's words to his family, but his grandparents could not accept it, and they felt that it was natural to pay off their debts.
Fathers are equally difficult to understand. He frequently called Akin and told him to stay in his hometown to learn a craft. Akin felt as if he had collapsed from an adult to a child who could not take responsibility for his actions, and his family no longer trusted him.
Because he couldn't stand the attitude of his family, after the New Year, Ah Jin returned to Jinan. Coming here again, a lot of things have changed.
He wanted to find a new job, but two interviews were fruitless, which he attributed to the influence of online lending bars, "during that time, I rarely communicated with people face-to-face, and it was a bit timid for a long time." After the third interview, he was offered a job in franchise sales, persuading those who wanted to start a business to pay the franchise fee.
He also began to manage his expenses and wanted to save some money, but often found himself with no concept of money. He still remembers how he felt when repaying online loans: "To make money, money has to pay off online loans, there is no money in hand; no money, no money to repay online loans, there is still no money in hand." So what's the use of making money? He lost "the enthusiasm for the work he once had."
Daniel Zhang have also been affected by online lending bars. A year later, he paid back 80,000 yuan, but only paid off the interest, and he decided to resolutely not pay back the remaining online loans like his friends, "let them (online lending platforms) wait to accept legal sanctions." Every day, text messages bombard him, "our company has applied for a mandatory freeze of bank cards, Alipay, and WeChat under his name according to the verdict." Daniel Zhang used to it, "it's all fooling people."
But the wife had a hard time accepting life being talked about by neighbors and colleagues, and after a dozen fights, the wife chose to divorce and the court awarded the son to the mother.
Daniel Zhang started living alone. Every day when I came home from work, there were no more washed clothes on the balcony, and the refrigerator was empty. He especially cherished the time to visit his son every Sunday, and took a video of his son's slide, singing nursery rhymes, and eating, which he posted on the WeChat video account.
When I work hard or miss my son, Daniel Zhang watch these videos repeatedly. He used to think he was a father who could make his son proud. During the time when the online loan was overdue, he also worried that he was a "useless father" and "how will my son look at me when he grows up?" But now, "there's nothing to care about." There is no face in his world, and there is no need for the dignity of a father.
Whether it is Ah Jin or Daniel Zhang, they no longer linger on online loans, and they decide to leave. The important reason is that compared with three years ago, online loan bars have also changed.
More and more scammers are invading here. Before Ah Jin left the group, someone asked: Is there a better mouth? Arrange it. The chat quickly refreshed four or five pages, and another person inadvertently talked about his gambling and losing "200 (million)" and how he had made some money through gambling. Two people sang a harmony in the group, talking about the benefits of "small and broad".
Having seen too many scams in online loan bars, it is difficult for Ah Jin to trust a person anymore. A few days ago, he visited the online loan bar for the last time, and after brushing dozens of pages of posts, he sighed: "It seems that except for me, none of the online loan bars are real people." ”
The article is the original of the daily people, and the infringement must be investigated.