Identity fraud: The debt collection industry clarifies.

Correct, because once a case has landed on our desk, it’s already too late. The goods have been shipped, the money has been paid – in short, the damage to the retailer or the bank has been done. Therefore, it is important to conduct the fraud check and the credit check at the moment the transaction occurs, the order is placed, or the loan is granted.

That’s a highly current issue. The German Federal Court of Justice issued a ruling on the matter just last October. It decreed that a debt collector acts unlawfully when it writes to presumed customers who have become the victims of identity theft and with whom the collection company in fact does not have a contractual relationship. Whether or not we have erroneously assumed that a contract had been concluded is irrelevant. In other words, collection services would, in theory, have to contact each person by mail or phone in advance to ask whether he or she had become the victim of fraud. Given the large number of cases every day, that’s just not feasible. As far as our industry is concerned, legal clarification is required (see the BGH ruling of 10/20/2021 (ref. no. I ZR 17/21)).