A political party announced on Sunday that it had contacted the police for assistance after receiving requests from many employers who were threatened by financial companies to repay debts on behalf of foreign domestic helpers.
Since April, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) has stated that they have received more than 20 referrals from foreign domestic helper agencies for help.
Some financial companies lured foreign domestic helpers to fill out forms to inquire about loans, which required them to provide the employer’s personal information and photos.
Later, the financial company entered them into the account book without the consent of the foreign domestic helpers.
They would then go to collect debts from their employer, douse their workplace with red paint, and use AI-edited indecent photos to threaten them to pay them back a debt of up to HK$50,000.
The party announced they had already assisted the employers in calling the police.
It is understood that one of the foreign domestic helpers stated that after filling out the form, the loan company immediately credited HKD 2,000 to the foreign domestic helper’s registered account, but the foreign domestic helper saw that the loan repayment amount after 14 days was HK$4,800, which meant the interest rate was 140 percent.
The domestic helper refused to repay due to a lack of consent, having only filled out the consultation form.
However, when the debt company saw that the foreign domestic helper did not repay, they contacted their employer through WhatsApp, sending them photos of the foreign helper with their ID card, photos of the employer’s entire family, and some obscene and forged photos, threatening the employer to repay the money on the employee’s behalf.
