‘Unlike other ah longs’: Two families living in constant fear after petrol bomb attacks from extra violent loan shark group

KUALA LUMPUR: Thinking they were dealing with official money lenders in Singapore, two men from different families have now condemned their families to constant harassment and fire bomb attacks from extortionists, with one even injuring a family dog.

The two, who live and work in Singapore, had both fallen for the same online trap after they made contact with the extortionists in Singapore.

They first made contact through a Facebook advertisement that impersonated a licensed Singapore money lender, with both having since either paid back their debt or never borrowed any money to begin with.

Despite only basic personal details given by the men to check for loan eligibility, the extortionists were then able to track down their families in Malaysia along with their identity card photos and family homes.

The extortionists have since launched relentless petrol bomb attacks against the family homes of both victims, along with escalating threats of violence, demanding more money be paid to them.

The exceedingly bold extortionists even take pictures and videos of themselves doing the attacks to send to the victims, challenging the latter to lodge police reports.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Bureau chief Datuk Seri Michael Chong said these extortionists were something entirely different from regular ah longs or loan sharks due to not only their extremely bold escalating threats of violence but also their refusal to reach an agreement with the victims.

“As someone who has helped negotiate for victims against loan sharks for decades, this new syndicate is very different and clearly unhinged.

“Even loan sharks can be negotiated with to a deal but not only does this group immediately resort to violent petrol bomb attacks but they also continue to extort money from victims no matter how much settlement money is paid.

“They’re boldness to record themselves in the attacks and send them to victims is also almost unheard of,” he said during a press conference at Wisma MCA on Monday (April 7).

He added that he had even gotten an office call from the syndicate demanding the location and new phone number of one of the victims.

One of the two men’s mother, 63-year-old housewife Madam Chung from Perak, said her son, named Tan, had already been forced to pay S$1,400 (RM4,650) to the extortionists despite having never even agreed to take any loan from them.

“All my son did was give his full name and phone number to an individual named Darren to check for loan eligibility but was then quickly transferred S$300 (RM996) on March 17 by Darren through Paynow Singapore which allowed money transfer to phone numbers.

“Tan then quickly paid back the money along with extra S$200 (RM664) at Darren’s instruction to a bank account provided by him on March 20 but they have since continued to threaten us and attack our family home with petrol bombs five times,” she said in the press conference.

Despite Tan having paid the extortionists another S$900 (RM2,989) on March 26, Chung said the petrol bomb attacks continued, with one attack having injured their family dog on April 2.

“Darren is now demanding S$20,000 (RM66,427) from us or will burn our house another 10 times as well as that the next attack would target one of our family members,” Chung said, adding that she has since lodged five police reports on the threats to no avail.

The second man’s mother, 61-year-old hawker Madam Chin from Seremban, said her son had already paid back the initially agreed upon sum of over S$5,000 (RM16,600) to the extortionists after borrowing S$900 twice in December last year.

Despite this, she said that not only did the extortionists demand more money to delete their personal details but also threatened to launch more petrol bomb attacks.

“My son had paid them back in March this year but they continue to harass my son in Singapore and throw petrol bombs our family home on March 21 and March 28 this year.

“Both me and my son have filed police reports but we are still living in fear of what will happen,” she said during the press conference.