Samui has its share of loan shark victims. They are, however, reluctant to register for the government’s refinancing scheme.

Officials say it is unclear whether they believe they can wait a little longer before seeking government help for their debts or are simply too afraid of their creditors to come forward.

Many loan sharks reportedly use violent means to collect repayments.

Fed up of this scare tactics, a borrower recently shot to death a loan shark’s collector who had been hounding him for unpaid debts.

The Justice Ministry’s People’s Debt Problem Center has received more than 100 complaints about the loan sharks’ use of intimidation tactics to collect money from borrowers. These days, however, some of these debt collectors are undercover government agents.

The Office of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission is now investigating the alleged use of threats against debtors. On the first day of registration for the government’s refinancing scheme recently, very few people showed up in Samui.

People who want the government to help negotiate debt repayments with unregistered moneylenders must register themselves under the scheme by Dec. 30 this year.

Many Samui residents believe the government’s refinance scheme will fail to tackle the loan shark problem while most illegal lenders are unconcerned about the government initiative.  Police sources said six collectors known to use intimidation tactics had been arrested in Samui. The six, the sources added,  worked for two different loan sharks.

One of these two loan sharks is believed to have links to a police official in one of the provinces in southern Thailand. –