The Bank of Russia has identified illegal companies that, under the guise of providing services for the storage of citizens’ property, actually issue loans against its collateral and work disguised as pawnshops. At the same time, such organizations are not included in the state register of pawnshops maintained by the Bank of Russia, do not comply with legal requirements for pawnshops and are not supervised by the regulator.
This creates risks of violation of consumer rights. Illegal immigrants replace loan agreements with storage agreements. The interest on them may significantly exceed the values set for legal market participants. Property transferred to illegal immigrants is not subject to insurance, whereas for pawnshops this is a mandatory requirement. In addition, there is no guarantee that the illegal client will be paid money when selling the thing, while pawnshops are obliged to return the difference between the amount of the sale of the unclaimed thing and the amount of the consumer’s obligations (if the amount earned during the sale of the thing exceeds the amount of its valuation).
The Bank of Russia considers this practice illegal and enters information about false pawnshops into the list of companies with signs of illegal activity, and also informs law enforcement agencies about the identified cases. Such companies can be brought to administrative responsibility, and their managers can be brought to criminal responsibility.
In order not to become a victim of fraudsters, check whether the company is in the state register of pawnshops. Remember also that a legal pawnshop must conclude a loan agreement with the client in the form of a security ticket.
A source: https://cbr.ru/press/event/?id=17201
