Columbia Debt Recovery Facing Class Action Over Alleged Violations of Consumer Reporting Law

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

An Ohio consumer claims in a proposed class action that collection agency Columbia Debt Recovery wrongfully reported a debt that didn’t belong to him to two credit bureaus and obtained his consumer report without a permissible purpose.

Want to stay in the loop on class actions that matter to you? Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.

The eight-page lawsuit alleges the Washington-based company violated the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when it reported to Trans Union and Experian a debt the plaintiff didn’t owe. The case says the man is a victim of identity theft whose personal information was used by a fraudster to apply for an apartment lease without his knowledge.

As the suit tells it, the plaintiff obtained copies of his consumer report from the two credit reporting agencies in 2023. The man says that while reviewing the documents, he noticed Columbia Debt Recovery had falsely reported that he owed approximately $260 in connection with a lease or lease application at an Ohio apartment complex where he had never applied to live.

According to the case, the defendant reported the debt to Trans Union under the name Genesis Credit Management, a company that is not registered in Washington and has been listed as “dissolved and inactive” on the Secretary of State’s office website since 2019.

The complaint goes on to allege that in October 2023, Columbia Debt Recovery requested and acquired a copy of the plaintiff’s consumer report from Trans Union without a valid reason for doing so. Per the filing, the collection agency pulled the man’s report without his authorization and for reasons unrelated to a “credit transaction” initiated by him, in violation of federal law.

As such, Columbia Debt Recovery’s conduct constitutes an invasion of the plaintiff’s privacy rights under the FCRA, the case contends.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States whose consumer report was furnished to Columbia Debt Recovery by Trans Union within the past two years for the purposes of collecting a debt arising out of any residential apartment lease or application for an apartment lease.

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.