Mr. Liu from Suning County, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, recently discovered a paid-off housing loan from 2001 in his bank account, even though he only opened the bank account in 2018. The bank stated that due to the long time that has passed, they are unable to provide any further details on the matter.
According to a report from Hu Bei Jing Shi Chuan Mei You Xian Gong Si’s “Jing Shi Zhi Bo” on May 24, Mr. Liu logged into the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China mobile application on April 28 and casually clicked on the “My Loans” page, where he saw a loan from 25 years ago: a “Personal Housing Purchase Loan” signed on July 20, 2001, with an amount of 90,000 RMB.
Mr. Liu was shocked to see this record because he opened the bank account in 2018 when he was only 19 years old, making it impossible for him to have applied for a housing loan at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2001. He claimed he never received this money, and both the loan account and repayment account associated with the loan were unfamiliar to him. Additionally, the results of a real estate registration query from the Suning County Natural Resources and Planning Bureau confirmed that Mr. Liu does not own any commercial property.
A bank employee from the Suning branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China told reporters from Da Xiang News and Mr. Liu on May 19 that since the loan was paid off in 2002, the relevant physical loan documents had been destroyed, and the repayment account was closed, making it temporarily impossible for the Suning branch to retrieve any information.
On May 22, Mr. Liu disclosed that the Suning branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China promised to delete the loan information from the system and publicly apologized for the inconvenience caused to him.
Mr. Liu mentioned that he had filed a report with the Suning County Public Security Bureau in an attempt to investigate whether this loan involved identity theft. However, the police stated that the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution had expired, so they would not be opening a case.
“Jing Shi Zhi Bo” noted that Mr. Liu’s experience is not an isolated case. Data from the China Judgment Document Network shows that between 2002 and 2013, there were several instances of individuals fraudulently obtaining personal housing loans involving multiple financial institutions. In many of these cases, judicial appraisals confirmed that the signatures and fingerprints on the loan contracts did not belong to the plaintiffs.