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KUALA LUMPUR: A Penang family made the heartbreaking decision to break ties with their eldest son as they were harassed by loan sharks after he borrowed money to feed his gambling habit.
“Since August 12, the family has been harassed by loan sharks who wanted to collect their debts,” said the head of the MCA Department of Complaints and Public Services, Datuk Seri Michael Chong.
The 38-year-old debtor is the oldest of four siblings who ran away from the family home in Tasek Gelugor, Penang, about three weeks ago.
“The loan sharks harassed the family with calls and text messages and even went to his house to look for the debtor,” he said.
Fearing for their safety, the family left their home on August 15, although that did not stop usurers from continuing to hunt them down.
According to Chong, her neighbors saw various groups of people heading to the house to find the eldest son.
Chong said the man’s mother and brother had to use their own savings to pay about RM200,000 of their debt, which had accumulated from May to July.
They later learned that the man had borrowed even more money since then. Now, they are not sure of the exact amount.
“The family suspects that he used the borrowed money to fuel his online gambling habit,” he said.
Chong said the loan sharks even tried to embarrass the family by posting their photo on Facebook and called them cheaters.
“They tried to humiliate the debtor by posting a lewd video of him that was false,” he said.
The brother and the company he worked for were not spared from humiliation, as the usurers also tried to frame them as cheaters.
“The brother and his employer filed a police report on Tuesday just as one of his in-laws filed a report on the harassment at the Kepala Batas police station on the same day,” he said.
Chong hopes that the police will take action against these loan sharks and put an end to their dirty tactics.
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