Uncover the profiteering business of professional debtors: earn 2 million in 3 months, the price is "a lifetime of old friends"

Source of this article: Times Weekly Author: Fu Yibo

More than 2 million cash were stacked on top of each other, covering the transparent coffee table tightly. This is the money that Xu Xu "earned" in 3 months - he is a 28-year-old county boy born in the Midwest, and he is also a debtor.

Debtor is a new word that has come out in recent years, and it used to be called "mouthful", that is, to obtain loans from banks in different ways, and to become "old men" without regard to repayment.

In essence, it is the same as the crime of fraudulently obtaining loans at the legal level. However, it is a small amount of money to make money, and only by taking on debts can you "make a fortune".

Most of the origins of debt are related to the property market. Under the downward pressure of the property market, some owners are eager to sell and cash out, and the debtors "carry" on their debts - the owners untie the debts, and the debtors take the money.

Xu Xu said that for the money on the table, he signed more than 10 loan agreements, with the lowest interest rate of 2.6% and the highest 7.2%. But he didn't care about any of that—because he didn't plan to pay it back.

The number of dishonest people like Xu Xu is increasing.

Source: China Executive Information Disclosure Network

According to data from the China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network, as of February 1, 2024, there were 8.39 million judgment defaulters.

Among these 8.39 million people, there are professional debtors.

An investigation by a reporter from Times Weekly found that debtors like Xu Xu relied on a set of gold-absorbing philosophies and methodologies that walked within the boundaries of the law, wandered in second- and third-tier cities, and used debts to achieve unimaginable wealth upgrades.

But Xu Xu prefers to think that this is a "gamble". Of course, he thinks that he "won": "500,000 and 1 million see the world differently," not to mention that he got more than 2 million, "This is a stepping stone, and he can go to the next level." ”

Become a debtor

Before becoming a debtor, Xu Xu hesitated.

According to the intermediary, he needs to stay in the designated city, eat and live all-inclusive, and cooperate with a series of processes during the period. Generally, it takes 2~6 months, and then the income is more than one million.

In the face of the huge temptation, Xu Xu was worried that he would be deceived. He first consulted with a friend at the bank, and then went to a lawyer friend to confirm, "I can't do anything with you." The other party's unequivocal response became a booster for his debt.

After becoming a debtor, Xu Xu only thought about one thing: how to live after getting the money.

Like Xu Xu, Tao Li, who was born in 97, is also determined to become a debtor.

He is from a southern county and stayed there to work as a chef after graduating from secondary school. In October 2022, the hotel closed down, and he became an unemployed young man in the county. In 2023, when he was looking for a job, he saw a post from an intermediary: "If you want to make money, come to a white household, and get 100 a week." He volunteered to send a private message and got a quick reply.

The operation mode and interest ratio of the debtor Drawing: Fu Yibo, a reporter from Times Weekly

For the first time, Tao Li knew about "back in debt". The agent told him that there was no big risk in taking on debt, it was easy and high-yielding, and he would not be held accountable. He believed. The two agreed that under the arrangement of the intermediary, he would "buy" a set of real estate worth about 400-5 million yuan, make a second loan after paying the down payment, and take out a loan of 6 million. As a "borrower", Tao Li can get about 1 million.

He didn't know where the rest of the money went, only that he knew that he was very close to 1 million - but the credit investigation became "black".

The decision was made quickly. From the private message to the phone call, Tao Li took 3 days.

Getting into the role of a debtor is also quick.

Xu Xu remembers that when he arrived at his destination with 6,000 yuan in living expenses, he was greeted by a debt agent, a short and fat middle-aged man who looked to be in his 40s.

He was taken to a three-bedroom room in the city center, where two people stayed for several months. Xu Xu was told that in the next time, it was time to eat, sleep, keep his mobile phone unblocked, and call him when needed.

Xu Xu asked about the situation of these two "passers-over": one is from Guizhou, 30 years old, his parents died early, his grandmother suffered from liver cancer, and he urgently needed money, and then embarked on the road of debt; the other was silent about his background, only saying that he was 37 years old, overwhelmed by car loans and housing loans, and was divorcing his wife.

A week later, Xu Xu's work on taking on the debt began. One afternoon, the agent asked him to sign a power of attorney to buy a house. He looked at the documents, they were all standard templates, and the properties he bought were also new, and he signed them. By the way, the intermediary took away the bank card and U shield in his name, saying that it was to facilitate the payment and create bank statements.

Xu Xu was mentally prepared. If you are deceived, go to the police and expose this industrial chain, "Don't play." He recalled afterwards that such fears were unwarranted. Because in the following month, the card continued to have money coming in, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

For the rest of the day, he slept in the house. The intermediary comes about once every 3 days to send some daily necessities and hundreds to thousands of yuan in cash.

Soon, "assets" flowed in - new houses worth 1.8 million yuan, two sets. However, except for the real estate certificate, Xu Xu has never really seen it. These "assets" are passed to him through an intermediary or in the form of documents.

He described himself as a robot, and without even looking at the contents of the document, he bothered to turn to the end of the page and sign his name.

Xu Xu was busy signing autographs, and his roommate in Guizhou was taken away. When he came back, the other party told him that he had received more than 2 million yuan in cash. It took a busy day to save the money in batches.

"Disappearing" from reality

After the roommates got the money, they went outside and rubbed it off. At the dinner table, the conversation box opened, and Xu Xu also clarified what "debt" was.

According to the roommate, he first "bought" a second-hand townhouse worth about 5 million yuan after being "packaged" by an intermediary, and the intermediary "advanced" a down payment of about 1.5 million yuan for the property.

After the house book was in hand, he ran a lot of banks to make a second mortgage, including state-owned banks and commercial banks, and made a variety of loan products, such as credit loans, decoration loans, business loans, and consumer loans. Several items add up to a loan that exceeds the total amount of the house price.

He calculated that the actual debt he was carrying was the loan of the second mortgage and the arrears other than the down payment of the property, totaling nearly 9.5 million yuan.

The same operation is perfectly replicated in Xu Xu.

In Xu Xu's narration, he "bought" two new houses through an intermediary, used them as collateral for a second mortgage, and obtained a loan of more than 600 yuan. And those properties are actually unsalable, with a listing price of about 5 million, but no one has cared about them for a year. The intermediary paid the purchase fee in advance, and took over the offer with Xu Xu's identity to let the developer untie the package.

The difference is that Xu Xu got nearly 40% of the more than 600 yuan, which is hundreds of thousands more than his roommates in Guizhou. Xu Xu said that this was because he met the online acquaintance of the intermediary.

Calculation of the debtor's arrears Drawing: Times reporter Fu Yibo

On the third day after getting the money, Xu Xu returned to his hometown. As soon as he arrived at the airport, he sent a message to the intermediary:

"It's here, rest assured. ”

"If you have money, keep a low profile, don't be too ostentatious and get the money done all at once. ”

"Okay. After sending a word, Xu Xu continued: "Thank you, brother, the rivers and lakes are far away, and we will see you again." ”

"xxx has turned on friend verification, and you are not yet his (her) friend. Please send a friend verification request first......"

Seeing a line of gray handwriting and a red exclamation mark lit up on the screen of his mobile phone, Xu Xu scolded in a low voice.

However, once you get the money, nothing else matters.

Xu Xu, who is "rich and free", began to plan for the future: a life script as a black household.

I used two bank cards that were not my own to transfer funds, opened a small shop with my wife, and lived a stable life; I bought pension insurance for my parents and gave them some cash; and some of them were used to invest in private loans, "It is said that the interest can earn about 200,000 yuan a year."

Becoming an "old lai", Xu Xu doesn't think there is anything about it.

The intermediary left him for a while to "hide" the money - replacing his mobile phone number and social media accounts, and deactivating online payments. The "height limit" can't take high-speed trains or planes, and he has to buy a car. In the face of collection, he thought of a response: there is no money anyway.

Tao Li also had a debt of 6 million, but he only got 1 million in cash, accounting for only 15%.

He felt that he had "lost money". Before, he looked up a lot of information about debt on the Internet, and he was a little panicked, thinking of the days to come, only to see a pool of stagnant water.

Tao Li tried to bargain with an agent, such as a little more or cash out the property, but was refused. The intermediary's attitude cooled down, and the initial enthusiasm was completely lost.

No matter what, the 1 million I wanted at the beginning was still in hand. Tao Li thought about it, this is enough to spend a year thinking about the rest of his life, whether he will work part-time, or go to other countries, or find a place to nest.

Why is it profitable?

After more than 2 million arrived, Xu Xu still didn't figure it out: why is it profitable to carry debts.

In the words of the intermediary, they paid the purchase price of the real estate, the taxes and fees arising from the real estate transaction, and also paid for the local consumption of the debtor. In the sharing ratio, the debtor generally takes 30-40%, the intermediary 20-30%, and the third party 30-40%.

In their narratives, third parties usually refer to people inside the bank who are related to the amount of money lending. So, they also took the lion's share of the profits.

Source: Picture Worm Creative

Although in Xu Xu's opinion, the intermediary's words cannot be trusted. However, the matter of debt is indeed inextricably linked to the bank.

The Times reporter found that this is related to the bank's pre-loan review and approval.

The information provided to the bank by the debtor is the real assets that have been "packaged" by the intermediary in exchange for higher loan qualifications, and the bank staff completes the loan approval based on these true materials.

It's a lucrative business.

Some bank staff pressed the review button, and the debtor was able to obtain millions of yuan in his name. Each party shall take its share according to the prior agreement. For intermediaries, they don't get much money for one project, and they have to rely on operating several projects at the same time to obtain high returns, which is not a small amount of money for bankers, equivalent to 5~10 years of income.

Wang Qing, vice president of a commercial bank in Zhejiang, said that at present, most bank credit departments have performance pressure, and bad debts will also occur. This does increase the feasibility of debt sadding, and there is no effective mechanism to eliminate it. "But it's risky. Who's going to gamble with their job?"

High yield means high risk. According to the judgment website, most of the loan fraud cases occurred before 2019. In 2013, someone used false procedures to take out 9 loans from a commercial bank in Zhoucun, with a total principal of 19.9 million yuan. In 2014, some people joined hands with banks, housing authorities and other personnel to defraud more than 10 million yuan, and the relevant defendants were sentenced to more than 4 years in prison.

Recently, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration punished 11 financial personnel of Xiangshan County Rural Credit Cooperative, 7 people including the general manager for failing to manage employees, using improper means to issue loans, and collecting and disposing of serious imprudent methods, and were banned from working in the banking industry for life.

In recent years, the debt-bearing industry has been involved in housing loans.

On December 15, 2023, Shanghai police cracked a mortgage fraud case involving 60 million yuan. According to reports, in this case, debtors, scalpers, real estate agents, loan agents, bank employees, etc., took turns to take advantage of debtors to buy houses and defraud loan arbitrage. In the end, 34 suspects were arrested by the police.

After surfacing

Despite strict supervision and profiteering, there are still people who are willing to enter the game and compete for "horse racing".

Zhang Xin, a debt broker, has been doing "business" for four years. He has a rule, "Make a maximum of 10 orders a month, so as not to be targeted", on the phone, he said in a relaxed tone, "I can definitely do it, there are a lot of people involved in this thing (debt)."

When it comes to risks, Zhang Xin is even more confident. He claimed that he had never been checked. Over the years, he has handled debtors with the youngest age of 19 years old and the oldest of 52 years old.

He is not surprised by the entry of debtors - gambling money, doing business at a loss, trying to get rich. After all, those who need money have their own reasons.

It's just that most of the debtors don't end up according to the script they originally envisioned. "In three or five years, the money is squandered. “

But this is just "business", Zhang Xin will not care so much.

He is the underlying intermediary of this industrial chain, commonly known as "skewers" in the industry. The main task is to pull people and find a debtor who can get a commission of 5-100,000 yuan. Zhang Xin said that when the information of the debtor is in hand, he will choose according to the property market and lending situation in various places, and the second and third tier cities are the first choice, followed by the new first tier.

"Wherever the policy is loose and the bank is better to do, we will choose which. ”

Circle of friends of debt intermediaries

However, Zhang Xin also has troubles. During this time, the debt recruitment information on various social media undoubtedly brought this hidden industrial chain to the surface. With a little attention, you can find the footprints of debtors and intermediaries on social media, with one intermediary describing it, "This thing looks complicated, but it's actually as easy and simple as online shopping." ”

"Originally, it was to make a fortune quietly and avoid risks. Now, everybody wants to get a piece of the action. Zhang Xin said.

What has brought this industrial chain into the public's attention are the cases that have been exposed one after another.

According to a report by Fingertip News on December 12, 2023, on December 31, 2020, Shanxi Lucheng Rural Commercial Bank loaned 8.97 million yuan to post-90s salarymen. In this case, the borrower, with a monthly salary of about 3,000 yuan, borrowed 2.99 million yuan from the bank with just a few documents, and successfully disbursed the loan on the same day.

According to a report released by China Economic Weekly on January 26, 2024, it was mentioned that 11 financial personnel of Xiangshan County Rural Credit Cooperatives illegally lent 425 million yuan.

According to statistics from the media, in the past 2023, national regulators have issued more than 2,400 fines to banks and financial institutions (including branches), with a total amount of more than 2.7 billion yuan, of which credit business is a high-incidence area of violations, with more than 1,000 fines issued, and large fines related to housing financing business are frequent.

Recently, the regulator stated that in 2024, it will continue to strictly supervise the credit business and increase the intensity of "double penalties" (both fines for institutions and fines).

Zhang Xin felt that this line of work had been targeted. He plans to make a few more votes and "go ashore". He claimed that banks will tighten loan vetting this year so that debtors who want to participate in the "wool picking" can make up their minds as soon as possible.

"Brother, how are you thinking about it? If you do it now, you can get the money out within a week. At the end of the conversation, he said.

(Xu Xu, Zhang Xin, Tao Li, and Wang Qing in the article are all pseudonyms.) ）