They stick, but not the bailiffs

If you receive a letter signed by bailiffs with a demand to repay the debt to the bank, do not rush to immediately follow the instructions. It may turn out that scammers are operating under the guise of FSSP employees.

On Wednesday, the Office of the Federal Bailiff Service in Moscow reported that residents of the capital and the region are receiving false orders to initiate enforcement proceedings against them. The FSSP believes that the papers were signed by fraudsters who pretend to be bailiffs. As explained to the Banki.ru portal in the UFSSP in Moscow, we are talking about hundreds of letters. “We do not yet have information on all people, whether they are really debtors,” the department said. - So far we have checked one person to whom we sent such a letter. In his regard, the service definitely did not initiate enforcement proceedings.

It is curious that the FSSP did not learn about these letters from angry citizens. “Since people didn't receive some of the letters, the post office returned them to the sender's address, so we learned about this mailing,” the department said.

All resolutions contain requirements to repay the debt to Alfa-Bank. The fake writ of execution posted on the Pravo.ru website says that the debtor is bound to pay the debt in full within five days after receiving the letter, about which to warn the FSSP employee. After that, you need to “drive up to the address of the bailiff of the executor with the application of the payment document and the application for closing the account in order to issue a decision to terminate the enforcement proceedings.”

It is noteworthy that no details of where the money should be sent are not indicated in the letter. But the phone number of SN Tsarkov, the bailiff, who must be informed about the repayment of the debt, is indicated. A man who introduced himself as Tsarkov answered this number to an employee of Banki.ru. When asked by a portal journalist where to pay the debt on the received writ of execution, the bailiff said that the money should be sent to his account at Alfa-Bank. Judging by the feedback from clients on one of the Internet forums, Tsarkov has repeatedly presented himself as a bailiff and demanded repayment of the debt from Alfa's clients. In some cases, he invited the debtors to meet in person and discuss the problem. Also on this forum, one of the “debtors” writes that she contacted Alfa-Bank,

The press service of Alfa-Bank said yesterday that "it is not aware of cases when fraudsters posing as bailiffs contact Alfa-Bank clients." “Customers can contact the bank at any time and clarify the situation with the debt on their loan. According to these facts, our clients did not apply to the bank,” the press service emphasized. The report also states that “when dealing with overdue debts on loans to individuals, Alfa-Bank focuses on collection on its own and in most cases achieves collection at the pre-trial stage.”

A Banki.ru source in the collection market, however, said that Alfa-Bank, unlike other large banks, cooperates with a very large number of collection agencies. “He works with more than 40 agencies, and only three to five of them are members of the National Association of Professional Collection Agencies, while most of the bank's partners are small companies, and their reputation may be in doubt,” the source says.

“There is no certainty that all the people who received the letters are clients of Alfa-Bank,” notes Oleg Kogan, director of overdue debt collection at Alfa-Bank. — It is possible that the letters are sent by scammers who, using the name of the bank, are trying to encourage debtors to contact them and give the money. I also do not rule out that some collection agency with which we cooperate is acting in this way, but in this case this is a violation of all agreements. I am more inclined to the version that this is the work of scammers.

Vera Panova, who worked on the Banki.ru portal for two years as an expert of Russian Standard Bank on handling claims, notes that even 10 cases of receiving such letters indicate that the problem is systemic and it is time for the bank to think. Now Alfa-Bank is conducting its own investigation into the appearance of these letters.

Market participants put forward different versions of what is happening. “The main goal of the sender of such a letter is for the debtor to agree to talk and pay off the debt in a pre-trial manner,” believes Dmitry Zhdanukhin, director of the Collection Development Center. - It is difficult to understand who in this case initiated the distribution of such letters: they can be sent by bank employees, collectors, and scammers who take money to solve the problem. There is also the option of provocation.”

According to Vladislav Kapkanov, deputy chairman of the bar association "Your Legal Attorney", here we are talking about fraud. “Data on Alfa-Bank borrowers came to outsiders, who decided to take advantage of this situation,” he said.

Sergei Shpeter, senior vice president of the Pristav agency, does not think that the bank was ready to use this method of obtaining debts from borrowers. “This could be done by a collection agency with which the bank cooperates under an agency agreement,” he suggests. - The agency coordinates its actions with the credit institution for which it works on outsourcing. The bank is responsible for the transfer of the register of debtors, and the agency is responsible for contacting the debtors. Therefore, it is the agency that is responsible for any deviation from the ethical standards of communication and for other violations directly related to debt collection.”

Experts point out that the human factor plays a role in debt collection and it cannot be ruled out that people working even in a civilized company or bank can go their own way. For example, in one very large retail bank, there was a case when an employee in the clothes of a bailiff came to the debtors' home and demanded to repay the loan.

Natalia ROMANOVA, Tatiana ALESHKINA, Tatiana TERNOVSKAYA, Banki.ru

UFSSP identifies four signs of the authenticity of its documents

The FSSP Office in Moscow warns citizens of the need to verify the authenticity of procedural documents and informs that this can be done in the bailiff department at the place of residence.

1. Envelopes sent by bailiffs indicate the exact address of the bailiff department, the name and initials of the bailiff, the number of enforcement proceedings.

2. The operative part of the resolution must indicate the full name of the bailiff department in which the decision to initiate was issued, as well as the full name of the Office of the Federal Bailiff Service in Moscow (for example: bailiff of the Presnensky District Bailiff Department of the Office of the Federal Bailiff Service in Moscow).

3. The official seal must contain the full name of the bailiff department (for example: Preobrazhensky bailiff department). If only the Office of the Federal Bailiff Service for Moscow is indicated, this is a fake.

4. The bailiff does not leave the place of residence of the debtor immediately after the decision to initiate, and even more so does not open the premises. In accordance with the Federal Law "On Enforcement Proceedings", the debtor is given a five-day period for voluntary fulfillment of the requirements of the enforcement document. The bailiff initially notifies the debtor of the need to appear at his appointment within the prescribed time. In case of non-appearance, he informs about the time of his visit and execution of enforcement actions. If the debtor evades paying the debt, he repeatedly warns him of administrative (criminal) liability and only after that attracts the debtor to it. The enforcement measure for the opening of residential premises is used by bailiffs in extreme cases.