We all know that it's not easy living in Singapore because our salaries are never in tune with inflation and taxes (Just SAYING)...
Maybe there are also people whose income is below average and they have a family to feed.
Maybe there are also people who are so into gambling that they forgot they have family, neighbours etc
Maybe there are people who are really desperate for i dont know reasons.
Legal money lenders most of the time has got minimum criteria that people have to fulfill before they are eligible. (oh well, who dont want to earn money and risk lending to someone who doesnt have ability to return at all, end of the day, Bad Debt increases)
Hence quite alot of people go to loan sharks, with an IC, money comes to you. If you are expecting a windfall soon, I congratulate you because you will have the ability to repay their so call 'interest' which I think will probably way higher than financial institutions. Runs like no one's business. And when I say Windfall, it has to be minimum of 10times of what you owed. Not just couple of hundred dollars.
People who borrow from loan sharks, what are the chances that there is a real income coming in? Even if they hold a job, it might not be enough to cover the debt at all. And the amount just keep on rolling.
On tv, during the older days, loan sharks at most harass the person who owes them the money, pig head, the real life: red paint is a common sight and that is if the loan sharks didnt get the wrong address - the person may have already moved away from the address but Smartly didnt update their IC with the police (happens a few times to my poor new neighbours) OR the runners remembering the wrong address and drew on the wrong floor (that happened to me many years back because my address was written on wall with a drawing of a very cute pig head- probably a sign that pig head is getting expensive) I would have taken a picture of it if i have a good camera phone at that point in time. It was the downstairs neighbour's fault and my poor mum has to clean in case people start asking is it us.
They always draw a few floors up and few floors down to probably shame the person who didnt pay and 'encourage' them to pay ASAP.
Problem is, precisely they have no money!!!!!!
Nowadays, given alot of things has gone digital, address and names of people staying near you is easily listed online.
Gone were the days you have to flip that thick phone book call Directory Listings...And you have to know the person by name before you can find 1 name. Now, You just have to get a CD of listings, do a search or something, everything comes up, you probably can find telephone numbers of who want to disturb at that address.
Loan shark nowadays disturb the neighbours instead, they call and send letters to neighbours, forcing them to go to the person owing to pay because they are being disturbed.
They dont even need to draw O$P$.
There is no way to put loan sharks out of business because there are many people who will always need them.
