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Technically, there is legal precedent in Canada that concluded unsolicited credit services are not legally binding. i.e. unless you personally asked/signed a r
by Joel_Mckay 2y ago
Technically, there is legal precedent in Canada that concluded unsolicited credit services are not legally binding. i.e. unless you personally asked/signed a request for some service, it is illegal to issue a bill for that service. These laws were a consequence of early credit-cards mass-mailing campaigns that just issued debt products to random people. Today, many legal cons still issue bogus invoices to companies everyday for things no one asked for... and sometimes you have to be careful how you handle the response (ahem, Google appliances... cough cough...)
Accordingly, up North an individual is only responsible for a few hundred dollar fee under fraudulent use of a credit card situation. i.e. even if you don't catch the billing errors fast enough to lock your card, you are generally not responsible for a criminals use of credit services without your knowledge.
When we were starting out, I made the mistake of paying for our IP lawyers dubious Lexis Nexsus subscription for a year, and then was hit 4 years later with a collection agents bill (initially we thought it was a scam)... because the former employee just kept using the service. Note, because I had initially agreed to pay for the journal subscription, my lawyer said it was cheaper to just pay them the $14k to get the matter settled (we were displeased as you could imagine.)
The lesson here, is be very careful about saying "yes" to things when you don't fully understand the consequences. There are unethical people that make their income from legal shenanigans pulled on new businesses.
Have a great day, =3