The Kuala Lumpur Consumer Protection Society president Samsudin Mohamad Fauzi said since 2017 he had received a lot of complaints from civil servants on the methods used to lure them into borrowing money.
He said the scheme uses an Islamic name to lure them and money is credited on the third day the request is made.
“The money is then deducted through their salaries and is shown in their payslips,” he told the media today.
Samsudin said his team was now in the midst of referring the cases to the attorney-general for clarification as “the foundations may not have the right to deduct money from the civil servants”.
This is because he said a check with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) showed one of the foundations was registered as an education provider.
“A senior politician’s name is listed as one of the foundation’s directors.”
Samsudin said he had passed information to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission earlier last year that the foundations had no licences to give out loans.
The group is also planning to sue on behalf of borrowers who believe they have been paying exorbitant sums in interest.
He believed 150,000 government servants may have taken loans from the foundations.
FMT has contacted MACC and is awaiting a response.
Victim shares experience taking loan
A 30-year-old customs officer, who gave her name as Fahana, said she first saw the name of the foundation on social media and requested for a personal loan.
“They called me right away upon registering. Everything seemed ok (legal),” she said during the press conference.
Fahana said she had requested for a RM44,000 loan but only RM32,000 was banked into her account. “They said the remaining RM12,000 was a deduction for stamp duty.”
Upon receiving her documents, Fahana found the stamp duty only cost RM10. When she inquired, they gave vague answers.
Farhana said she was paying RM1,200 monthly. The foundation charged her RM66,000 in total for early settlement of the loan.
She was unhappy as the foundation had charged her interest for the whole term of the loan. She lodged a complaint with the consumer group to reduce it.
She hoped other civil servants will not fall prey to this scheme.