Illegal Loan Victims Reach Record High

A report by the National Police Agency found that a record 122,115 people were victimized through illegal loans in 2002, suffering a combined loss of about 15.98 billion yen. Police said the incidents often involved dealers lending small sums of money over and over again.

To make it easy for people to borrow the money, some lenders did not operate offices, restricting their business to cell phone calls. In other cases, people would obtain a Tokyo moneylenders license, then solicit people nationwide through e-mail… Continue

… It’s odd how “legitimate” businesses are supposed to have a fixed-line number, while others (like WWJ) that operate only via cell phone are thought to be less above-board; stories like this don’t help!