A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at high interest rates to individuals, often backed by blackmail or threats of violence.[1]
Throughout history, usury laws made loan sharks commonplace.[clarification needed] Many moneylenders skirted between legal and extra-legal activity. In the recent western world, loan sharks have been a feature of the criminal underworld, but are otherwise rare. Loan sharks are common in the UK and among the Italian Cosa Nostra and Triads in China.
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