How far can a person go to sustain a lifestyle? A question like that can make an entire room full of people squirm unpleasantly. Because the truth is rather dark. From taking up sugar daddies/mamas to selling their virginity, from robbing one’s own family members to corporate espionage, there’s no act too impossible for a person desperate for money to achieve their goal. As for those in the business of lending money, exploiting a person’s desperation is just good business strategy.
Life for the young in the worlds top three countries of China, India and the US is getting severely crushed under the weight of loans.
We’ve seen it in movies and TV shows, and we’ve seen it in real life too. The youth of today lives under a lot of pressure to excel in academics, their jobs, and maintain a lifestyle that rouses envy on social media. But here’s the reality check: not everyone can afford it.
This inevitably draws them into the world of illegal loans and a never-ending cycle of debt. What’s worse is that a whole posse of exploitative money lenders and loan sharks are ready to make their lives a living nightmare.
Making this nightmare even scarier for Chinese youth is a new trend in China called the ‘Naked Loan Services’. And yes, it is as bad as it sounds.
According to a report by Vice Australia, a number of online lender vendors prey upon desperate students who seek funds to sustain their education or extravagant lifestyles.
These e-lenders demand naked selfies from their clients as collateral for the loans and threaten to send the photos to the person’s family and friends if the loan’s not repaid.
As if this isn’t worse already, the rates of interest charged on the loan are so high that the borrower is trapped in even more debt, and forced to pass on more naked photos as collateral. Some of them are also given the option to do sex work as a repayment of the loans.
News18 reports that in 2016, China Youth Daily published a report stating a total of 10 GB of nudes from 161 women were leaked online by these e-lenders.
The women were photographed with their photo ids, and were aged 19-23. Their loan amounts were somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000.
Although Chinese authorities have taken cognizance of this thriving trend and have taken steps to put a stop to it, it continues to happen through social media. For now, only China seems to have fallen prey to this exploitative trend. However, other countries, including India, are not immune from this.