I'm looking into a job, and I'm trying to figure out if there is a legal issue with it.
The role is called "asset investigator." It entails confirming bank info on behalf of credit card companies who want to collect owed money.
The job is as follows: the employer calls a bank and impersonates the owner of an account. After providing all sorts of personal info like social security number, address etc. (all provided by the company), the employer then confirms the account and tries to get as much info as possible- current balance, past transactions etc.
The employer doesn't actually do anything to the account. No money is transferred, no passwords changed, etc. But the info is then passed on to the credit card companies, who can then proceed to sue the person for debt.
I was told by an employer at the company that the credit card companies already have legal right to get this information from the bank, and they just prefer to avoid directly forcing banks to give over such private information (since it causes ill-will between the banks and the credit companies etc.)
This doesn't sound so legal to me. However, all of the discussions I found talking about impersonating bank account owners all focused on the transferring of money. I couldn't find anything just discussing the impersonation.
I'm trying to figure out:
- Is impersonating a bank account owner, in the above described situation, actually legal in general?
- Is it possible that in the specific situation, where the credit card companies (allegedly) have court permission to access the info, it would be permissible to impersonate the bank account owner?
avoid ill will from the bank
seems totally unplausible. If I had to bet, my money would be in the "employers" being criminals who will steal the victims'money and leave a trail leading back to you.