Chinese debt collectors have come up with a unique way of identifying debtors and reminding them of their debts. Huge billboards in the country are being used to display the names and addresses of these people.

According to the Telegraph, this is as a result of the growing numbers of borrowers who cannot pay back their loans in the middle of China's economic slowdown. At least 20 people have their names up on the billboard along with their personal information and the amount of money they have not paid yet.

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The information has been published on billboards in the two main railway stations in Shanghai. Some of the individuals named are bosses of companies while one owed less than $300. The use of billboards to expose these debtors is part of a drive to share the details of the borrowers also in newspapers, television, and the internet, to pressurize them to pay what they are owing.

Although there are only 20 people listed on the billboards of Shanghai, China has reportedly released the identities of 3.4 million debtors. The same billboard scheme was used in the eastern Anhui province in July 2015. Up to 30 people were exposed there. In July 2015, a man reportedly returned less than $600,000 he owed the day after his name and details were posted on the billboard.

Zhou Qiang, the president of China's Supreme People's Court, said in March that debt avoidance was a major problem in the country and vowed that there would be no place for borrowers to hide, Reuters reported.

Some of the people shamed in past billboard campaigns have reportedly changed their phone numbers, addresses, and even disappeared. Authorities are calling on people who know their whereabouts to help track them down.

Other measures being used to pressurize debtors in China is freezing bank accounts as well as assets, blocking children being enrolled in private schools, and even not allowing debtors to stay in expensive hotels or go on vacations.

Tagschina, Chinese debtors, Chinese borrowers, runaway debtors, billboards, identities, Personal Information, amount of money borrowed