Replacing usury with rent, revealing 1000% profit breakdown

You think high-interest loans are dead? Wrong, they’ve just changed their disguise

From 714 high-interest cash loans to leasing mobile phones, dressed in “rental” clothing, continuing to harvest the easiest fools to fall for.

High-interest cash loans with weekly interest of 30%, annualized rate of over 1500%, plus upfront fees.

Borrow 2000 yuan, get 1400 yuan in hand, paying 600 yuan interest weekly. Sounds unbelievable? How could there be such fools?

At the peak, almost all domestic colleges were infiltrated, especially technical colleges and vocational schools, where students borrowed high-interest loans.

All students borrowing money had one purpose: consumption, buying phones.

Classmates borrowing from classmates, getting a partner, both taking out loans together
Nods, opens mouths, blinks
Money then arrives in their accounts

The stupidity of these students exceeds imagination.
Their vanity is boundless.

A large group of hooligans and thugs got rich from this, achieving financial freedom in just a couple of years. The craze grew too fast and was thoroughly banned, lending to students became illegal.

But once the hype faded, some people started to have ideas
What if it’s rent?

Anyway, borrowing money is just buying a phone, so why not just borrow the phone directly? Especially since stupid college students have this demand...

Soon, these people changed their approach, turning ordinary phone rentals into high-interest loans, perfectly bypassing regulations.

Let me break down the tricks involved:

Usually, you need to rent a phone for a short period

As the provider: make money by renting out phones and electronic devices. Once recovered, resell the phones as second-hand goods.

As the renter: rent the phone, then sell it off after the lease ends or return it.

But the lending logic changes

Core premise: the platform doesn’t care whether they can recover the phone, but aims to earn rent that far exceeds the phone’s value. This rent essentially becomes a high-interest loan.

For example, an Apple phone costing 8000 yuan

Nominal rent + buyout fee totals 12000 yuan

Divide into 12 months, each installment is 1000 yuan, but the first installment includes upfront costs like 3 months’ rent + service fee, e.g., a down payment of 3000 + 200 = 3200 yuan

User operation:

1. User pays the down payment of 3200 yuan and receives the phone.

2. The user immediately sells the phone to a recycling merchant, who can sell it for around 7000 yuan.

Selling the phone is good—saves trouble and makes money.

3. The user’s actual cash in hand is 8000 - 3200 = 4800 yuan

4. But the user is now burdened with a debt of 12000 yuan in installments

User:

Cash received: 7000
Debt: 12000 yuan in installments

Essentially: borrowed a loan of 4800 yuan, but the principal is 12000 yuan, with interest of up to 7200 yuan. Plus some fees, the annualized interest rate exceeds 1000%.

Platform:

Expenses: cost of purchasing phones at 9000 yuan.

Total income: 3200 + 9000 = 12200 yuan

Gross profit: 12200 - 8000 = 4200 yuan

The act of the user selling the phone is essentially completing the recovery process for the platform, saving the platform the secondary disposal cost. The platform mainly pursues cash flow from users’ ongoing repayments.

User’s down payment: 3000 + 200 service fee

User’s subsequent installment repayment: 9000 yuan (assuming the user continues to pay)

Broker: earns commission, a few hundred yuan per deal.

Recycling merchant/platform: collects 7000 yuan for the phone, re-enters the rental market.

Will the lessor (platform) lose money?

The total rent amount far exceeds the phone’s value (essentially a high-interest loan principal and interest).

Extremely high interest rates are enough to cover bad debts.

The real risk for the platform is people refusing to repay—borrowing from the system.

Of course, the platform fears users default and run away. But 1000% interest isn’t earned for nothing; a short-term high down payment cycle acts as a big short-term insurance, enough to cover bad debt losses.

This model was playing well until exposed by the media.

1000% interest, will anyone really borrow and repay?

Don’t underestimate the number of fools in this world. Their vanity and ignorance are the most stable cash cows for these wealth accumulators.

There are far more fools in this world than you think.