The "training loan" trick is used by inexperienced college students to provide part-time jobs as a cover for training institutions | training loans | trick
Comics/Li Xiaojun
Investigation motivation
Recently, Zhang Xiaowen, a freshman from Jiangxi, reported to a reporter from the Legal Daily that she may have encountered a "training loan" scam - she participated in an online dubbing course at a training institution and, under the guidance of the institution's staff, processed a total of 5860 yuan in installment payments for tuition fees. Later, she found that the course content did not match her promise, and the institution did not provide her with part-time opportunities as previously promised. She proposed to cancel the course for a refund, but still needs to pay a penalty of 2023 yuan for breach of contract.
As the saying goes, more skills do not weigh down the body. Many college students, during their studies or before and after graduation, want to learn more skills to increase their employment opportunities, while unscrupulous training institutions take advantage of this "business opportunity" and lure many college students into the "training loan" trap. Although relevant departments have continuously increased their regulatory efforts and issued warnings, cases of college students being deceived are still frequently reported in the media.
How is a bad training institution established? Why is it so difficult to cancel course refunds? How to rectify this chaos in accordance with the law? With these questions in mind, the reporter conducted an in-depth investigation and interview.
Because of his interest in the dubbing industry, Zhang Xiaowen, a freshman, often browses the content related to learning dubbing on the Internet. Once, after leaving his mobile phone number in the course introduction link of the social official account, the training institution actively added her as a social friend.
"The staff vigorously promoted that they could do their part-time jobs while studying courses, and the money they earned would pay tuition fees in installments. What ultimately moved me was the saying 'Learning skills is not about consumption, it's about investment.' Zhang Xiaowen recalled in a recent interview with a reporter from the Legal Daily that after taking some courses, she found that the training courses were extremely unprofessional and did not offer part-time jobs, and the training institutions were constantly recommending higher priced advanced courses to her.".
Similar experiences go far beyond just Zhang Xiaowen. The reporter interviewed six students who have recently fallen into the trap of "training loans". They realized that after being scammed, they all want to protect their rights, refund training fees, and solve the problem of online loans, but they face many difficulties.
The so-called "training loan" trap refers to some unscrupulous training institutions promising to provide part-time jobs and employment opportunities, inducing students to borrow and pay training fees on online loan platforms. But after the course started, the students did not receive the part-time or employment opportunities promised by the institution, nor did they master a skill, but they faced difficulties in refunding fees and high interest loan risks. At the end of May this year, the National Student Assistance Management Center of the Ministry of Education issued the first warning of 2023: Beware of the "training loan" trap.
Several experts interviewed by reporters believe that college students are trapped in the "training loan" trap, which includes both social issues and the lack of financial education for college students. Regular financial education should be provided to help college students develop healthy and rational financial management habits and mature consumption views. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of market access, qualification review, and fund utilization of various non disciplinary extracurricular training institutions in society, maintain a high-pressure situation of cracking down on illegal and irregular training, and promote the standardized development and compliant operation of non disciplinary extracurricular training institutions.
Under the guise of providing part-time jobs
Inducing students to pay for training
Feeling deceived, Zhang Xiaowen decided to drop out of class and no longer repay in installments, but a reminder message came immediately.
She only then realized that the so-called installment of tuition fees actually refers to the repayment of tuition fees in installments after borrowing from online lending platforms. Now, she hopes to retrieve the paid money from the training institution, but is also concerned that not following the requirements of the training institution may result in the inability to cancel the installment loan, which will affect her personal credit rating.
After interviewing six students who were trapped in the "training loan" trap, the reporter found that they were mostly in their 19th and 20th years old and had similar experiences of being tricked: some institutions promised to "package job search" after receiving training, while others advertised "learning while making money", "learning before paying", and "installment payments". Students were gradually induced to borrow money from online lending platforms to pay for training costs, either to obtain employment opportunities or to master a skill.
"Gradually repay in 12 installments, with only 331 yuan to be repaid per month without any pressure." "Next month, when paying off the first installment of tuition, you can also take on a part-time job." "There is a student aid discount for college students, with a down payment of 100 yuan to offset the tuition fee of 3000 yuan." This is the "training loan" promotion received by Zhou Na, a girl from Anhui who just took the college entrance examination this year, when she came into contact with a certain training institution course.
"This course institution that teaches PS skills told me that after participating in the training, they will assign me orders, and I can earn 900 yuan in the first month." Zhou Na said, at that time she was completely unfamiliar with borrowing, and the staff of the institution voluntarily suggested that if there was pressure to pay the training fee in full, she could choose to pay in installments.
Finally, after filling in her ID number number, bank card number and email address, Zhou Na got the loan approval and started the repayment of 331 yuan a month. The first month's 331 yuan was saved by Zhou Na from the pocket money given by her parents.
The tricks encountered by others are almost identical.
In July of this year, an organization in Shandong province offered a high paying employment class for film and television post production. When Yuan Yuan, a freshman student from Gansu, chose to pay in installments, they recommended it as follows: "Sign up for a down payment of 50 yuan, pay in installments for 12 months, and pay 550 yuan per month." "Normally, the first month requires starting from scratch, so the income will not be very high. The basic salary is around 50 yuan. However, as long as you have enough time, you can earn about 1000 yuan per month. Moreover, the organization provides continuous part-time opportunities, so there is no need to worry about repayment costs."
After confirming the registration for the course and selecting installment payments, the institution had Yuan Yuan sign an agreement, in which one clause stated, "If the buyer fails to pay the relevant amount on time, a penalty of 0.0667% per day shall be paid to the factoring agent based on the overdue payment amount until the payment is fully settled.".
According to Professor Peng Xinlin from the Criminal Law Science Research Institute of Beijing Normal University, on the one hand, a large number of real-life cases indicate that the quality of relevant courses is not high, and it is almost impossible to expect to acquire skills through such online training; On the other hand, if a training institution uses the guise of recruiting interns, providing part-time or employment opportunities, and objectively has no real part-time or employment opportunities, and the real intention is to induce students to pay the so-called "training fees" through installment loans, it is considered to be a fraudulent act of fabricating facts and concealing the truth, causing others to fall into a wrong understanding, and then defrauding others of their property, which is suspected of fraud and illegal activities.
The institution claims that education is divided into stages
It is actually an online credit loan
"The institutional teacher said this is an 'education installment', not a loan. In March of this year, Guangdong university student Lin Qian was also attracted by an advertisement from a certain institution that 'earns money while learning' while searching for a graphic design course.". The staff of the institution stated that after participating in the course training, students can be introduced to part-time jobs, and the training fees can be easily earned back.
At that time, Lin Qian's monthly living expenses did not exceed 1000 yuan and she could not provide training expenses. At the beginning, the agency staff invited her to open installment payment in the credit loan product of an Internet company, "saying that they have a cooperative relationship". Lin Qian recalled that because she didn't use the Internet company's products very often, the agency staff recommended her to open installment payment on a loan platform. "The teacher sent me a QR code to scan, saying it was an internal education installment.".
This statement is not an exception. During the investigation, Zhang Xiaowen also reported to reporters that when recommending installment payments, the institution clearly stated that "it is not a installment loan, but just a contract to pay tuition fees in installments.".
A person from a loan aid institution in Shanghai told reporters that "training loans" aimed at skill training have a large market demand, and many loan aid institutions, consumer finance companies, and other institutions have layout. As a financial product, its business model itself has no problems, but it is targeted by some people with ulterior motives, and negative public opinion often occurs. In recent years, it has been a focus of regulatory authorities to rectify. Its organization has also been strengthening the protection of user rights and the qualification review of cooperative institutions. Once risks are found in cooperative institutions, cooperation will be immediately stopped.
However, the six interviewed students who encountered the "training loan" trap this time all stated that their installment payments were completed through relevant agreements signed by third-party lending platforms. During the process of handling installment payments, we did not receive any reminders about borrowing risks. Zhang Xiaowen and five other interviewees didn't even know if their installment payments included interest.
"While the online lending industry is developing rapidly, there are problems such as low entry barriers for loan business, ineffective identity verification, and insufficient risk warnings. Some institutions have begun to take advantage of legal loopholes and use tricks such as' training loans' to attract students who have not yet delved into the world, in order to achieve the goal of accumulating wealth," said Qiao Xinsheng, a professor at Central South University of Economics and Law.
"Training loans essentially belong to consumer loans," said Liu Deliang, a professor at the Law School of Central South University of Economics and Law. If such training institutions engage in false advertising and misleading consumer behavior, it constitutes civil fraud, and the parties can terminate or revoke the contract. If college students fall into the trap of "training loans", they can complain to the consumer association or market supervision and management department, or file civil lawsuits or report to the public security organs for assistance and coordination. If suspected of fraud, they can also report to the public security organs.
In March 2021, the CBRC and other five departments issued the Notice on Further Regulating the Supervision and Management of College Students' Internet Consumption Loans, requiring strengthening the supervision and management of college students' Internet consumption loans. Among them, lending institutions outsourcing cooperation institutions should strengthen customer screening, and should not use false, misleading, or misleading propaganda to induce college students to consume excessively or borrow excessively. They should not target college students with precise marketing, and should not push and attract college students to lending institutions; Institutions established without the approval of the banking regulatory department or local financial regulatory department shall not provide credit services to college students.
Institutional means are constantly upgrading
Difficulty in refunding students and safeguarding their rights
The reporter found through a search on a third-party consumer complaint platform that there are currently over 18000 complaints related to "training loans" alone. Meanwhile, many victims have shared their experiences online.
But the reporter found that only a few victims were able to claim a portion of their tuition fees and cancel installment payments. Some involved institutions even confidently state that training will incur costs and borrowing is voluntary. If the students are not satisfied, they can be resolved through legal means. Some students claimed that after suing in court, they lost due to insufficient evidence.
Lin Xiaoya, who just graduated from a university in Yunnan, chose a Korean language training course offered by a certain institution and applied for tuition fees in installments. However, after taking a few classes, she found that the live class had turned into a recorded one. After attending a total of 262 classes, Lin Xiaoya proposed to the institution to terminate the training contract, refund tuition fees, and cancel installment payments after attending 13 classes. The other party "calculated" and stated that the 4462.5 yuan already paid can only be refunded by 0.29 yuan. In addition, they cannot cancel the installment and students need to connect with the online lending platform for operation.
It is understood that the "Analysis of Complaints Accepted by the National Consumer Association in 2022" released by the China Consumers Association in February this year also mentioned the difficulty of students being induced to apply for "training loans" and refund fees.
In the journalist's investigation, Zhou Na was considered "lucky". After participating in the training, she found that the goods were not the right ones, and the so-called part-time job was also out of reach. Therefore, she chose to drop out of the class, went through twists and turns, and finally succeeded.
"I started communicating with the staff of the institution who recommended me for installment payments, but the negotiation was unsuccessful. Then, the institution dealt with me coldly and no longer replied to me," Zhou Na said. So she chose to report to the relevant complaint platform. "As soon as I reported it, the institution immediately replied, and the legal department contacted me. The negotiation result was' resolve it within 5 to 7 working days, deduct 100 yuan from the registration fee, and refund all other fees', but it was still a procrastination tactic afterwards.". A week later, Zhou Na contacted the legal department of the institution and stated that if the issue was not resolved, she would report it again or seek the intervention of a lawyer before finally resolving the issue.
Qiao Xinsheng believes that from a legal perspective, as adults, students are fully capable of civil conduct when signing contracts. The contracts signed with training institutions and lending platforms represent the true intentions of both parties, and it is difficult to determine whether there is civil fraud or even criminal fraud in them.
An industry insider also stated that in the context of high victim complaint rates, institutions are constantly upgrading their means, such as claiming that students can enjoy services as long as they participate in training. Many institutions still retain student videos, photos, and other class information, which leads to passive rights protection for students in the later stage.
In this regard, Peng Xinlin also believes that there are certain difficulties in protecting the rights of victims in practice. The main reason is that relevant unscrupulous training institutions have long designed "tricks" and taken various measures to avoid legal risks, such as the existence of legally registered physical institutions, agreements with students, creating loan fund flows, and retaining training class information. It is difficult to obtain evidence of their illegal activities.
"Taking the 'training loan' trap as an example, it has strong concealment, deception, confusion, and derivatives, and belongs to the category of new types of fraudulent illegal criminal activities. Criminals often use internships, part-time jobs, employment opportunities, and other means to lure or disguise themselves, and then indirectly obtain the victim's money. It is often difficult to distinguish between true and false methods. Victims lack sufficient knowledge and even recognition ability for such new types of illegal crimes, and there are also difficulties in obtaining evidence and cross identification between criminal and civil law in judicial practice," said Peng Xinlin.
Rational judgment and cautious choice
Establish a sound risk prevention and control mechanism
The first warning of 2023 issued by the National Student Assistance Management Center at the end of May shows that "training loan" scams have occurred from time to time and are on the rise. Some unscrupulous training institutions promise to provide part-time and employment opportunities as long as they register for training courses, and offer installment payments for tuition fees, inducing students to borrow on online loan platforms. But after the course started, students did not receive the part-time or employment opportunities promised by the institution, and faced difficulties in refunding fees and high interest loan risks.
In this regard, the reporter noticed that multiple colleges and universities have published articles on their official employment platforms about being wary of the "training loan" trap, reminding students to enhance their awareness of prevention and discernment, not to trust training institutions' promises of "learning while making money" and "learning before paying" to lure loans, and not to register information, transfer money, and apply for loans on unfamiliar online platforms. During the job search period, pay attention to screening recruitment information and company qualifications. If you encounter unclear or uncertain situations, please communicate with schools and parents in a timely manner, make rational judgments, choose carefully, and avoid falling into the "training loan" trap.
In fact, in recent years, regulatory authorities have also repeatedly introduced relevant policies to rectify and regulate "training loans".
The Interim Measures for Financial Management of Off campus Training Institutions, issued by the Ministry of Education and five other departments this year, have put forward comprehensive and standardized requirements for the financial activities of off campus training institutions. The China Consumers Association also issued an article reminding consumers to understand the reputation of relevant training institutions through multiple channels. Before signing a training service contract, it is necessary to carefully check and understand the teaching staff of the training institutions through various channels to avoid being misled by false advertising by merchants. When paying training fees, avoid paying a large amount of money at once, and do not trust promises such as guaranteed refunds to prevent property losses caused by poor management or intentional money grabbing and running away by training institutions. Special attention should be paid to discerning those who use the guise of high paying employment to induce the application of "training loans" and avoid falling into the "scam" of unscrupulous merchants.
In this regard, Peng Xinlin suggests strengthening the supervision of market access, qualification review, and fund utilization of various non disciplinary extracurricular training institutions in society, maintaining a high-pressure situation of cracking down on illegal and irregular training, and promoting the standardized development and compliant operation of non disciplinary extracurricular training institutions. Student groups should also enhance their awareness of prevention, pay attention to screening recruitment information and training institution qualifications, choose legal and compliant training institutions, and avoid registering information, transferring funds, and applying for loans on unfamiliar online platforms. They should protect their legitimate rights and interests and not fall into the trap of "training loans".
In Liu Deliang's view, college students are trapped in the "training loan" trap, which includes both social issues and the lack of financial intelligence education for college students. Regular financial education should be carried out to help college students develop healthy and rational financial management habits and mature consumption views, and become rational consumers of financial products. When encountering the "training loan" tricks and traps, they can maintain a clear mind and rational judgment.
Qiao Xinsheng believes that the supply of legal borrowing resources should be increased, and this should be taken as a starting point to improve the access and operation supervision system of the "campus loan" industry, clarify the industry entry threshold, improve the industry risk prevention and control mechanism, actively provide customized, standardized, safe and reassuring, real and transparent, and risk controllable financial products and services for college students, so that truly in need college students can more conveniently receive financial support, have dignity and ability to consume loans.
