校园贷(xiàoyuán dài): Campus loans

One report was about a college student in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province, who borrowed 8,000 yuan ($1,214) at first but had to repay about 80,000 yuan in accumulated debt and interest after just six months through a series of repayment borrowings. He finally committed suicide as he couldn't pay.

Some lenders even force college students to take nude photos with their identity cards as "receipts" for the loans, and threaten to make them public if they don't pay up.

Third-party internet finance platforms always attract college students, who are willing to borrow despite the high interest. They can easily get loans a few hours after providing some simple personal information like their identification numbers, college information and family information through the apps of the loan providers.

However, once the students fail to pay what they owe on time, they are often forced to promote such loans to their friends and classmates, which forms a pyramid scheme.

The Ministry of Education and China Banking Regulatory Commission issued an announcement in April that requires stronger supervision of loans to students.