EBN European Business Number scam - Part 2 - Do not pay!
Saturday, December 2. 2017
Update 25th June 2019: EBN scammers bankrupt
Roughly an year ago I posted about EBN European Business Number scam. Now, an year later, it is one of the most commented article on my blog. At the time of posting, I was just pissed off about that stupid scam and wanted to inform and educate my readers about this and warn them for NOT to agree on their terms, nor pay anybody any money for it.
Then something that I didn't foresee or expect to happen happened: The article took off and thousands of people read it and dozens commented it. Looks like I stumbled into something big. The upcoming months proved, that this scamming corporation was operating all over Europe and doing their less-than-honest "business" of selling nothingness to unwary business owners.
Given the flood of comments, recently I found out that Raivo Laanemets, an Estonian software consultant, wrote about EBN scam back on 2015, over year before I did. Go read his blog post here. For the pointer, I'd like to thank Mr. Vaidas, who copy/pasted the comment from Mr. Laanemets' blog to mine.
This is the comment from June 2017 and contains following by Mr.(?) Gorila:
The critical claims made are:
- Person behind all this is Adrian Wittmer
- My comment: I'm not sure how to confirm this
- Mentioned Adrian Wittmer is actively involved in two companies: Credit Business Resolution s.r.o. and CCF Credit Collection Factoring s.r.o.
- My comment: I have not seen the threatening debt collector's letters, but in my previous EBN post comments, people have said, that the company doing the debt collecting is indeed Credit Collection Factoring s.r.o. from the Czech Republic
- Czech Republic legislation is more tolerant towards fraudsters
- My comment: I barely know parts of Finnish law, gaining understanding difference between German or Czech laws is way beyond me.
- Regulation (EC) No 1896/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 creating a European order for payment procedure
- My comment: The above mentioned regulation directs how payments of "low value" between companies. (16) says: "This would allow the court to examine prima facie the merits of the claim and inter alia to exclude clearly unfounded claims or inadmissible applications."
Article 7 (d) and (e) define, that EBN debt collectors need to establish basis for their claim and appropriate evidence.
Shortly: If EBN-scam can be proven as unfounded claim based on fraud, you don't have to pay.
- My comment: The above mentioned regulation directs how payments of "low value" between companies. (16) says: "This would allow the court to examine prima facie the merits of the claim and inter alia to exclude clearly unfounded claims or inadmissible applications."
- Mr. Wittmer has created a money-making-machine. First he sells a non-existing "service" for European Business Number, then he acts as an enforcer to collect his own debt from customers refusing to pay.
- My comment: Again, I'm not sure how to confirm this, but it sure looks like that!
What I found out to corroborate Mr.(?) Gorila's claims made is:
- A variation of EBN-scam has been running in Czech Republic since 1998. There is an article about the scam written in 2006.
- Articles about Intercable Verlag AG can be found back in 2003 in Swizerland.
- Intercable Verlag AG was raided by Swiss police in 2006 and placed in liquidation in 2009
- I found a ton of claims, that Mr. Wittmer was the managing director of Intercable Verlag, but was unable to verify that. I guess, I just have to assume, that the claim is true.
- Croatian authorities issued a warning against EBN scam in 2017. That binds Swiss Intercable Verlag AG into Dutch EU Business Register and German DAD Deutscher Adressdienst GmbH. That could be a proof, that same persons operate the scam.
- In September 2014 European Parliament issued a notice about on misleading offers from Deutsche Adressdienst GmbH (DAD). That document clearly states that all petitions against the DAD Gmbh have been "declared admissible".
Shortly: You don't have to pay!
There seems to be a lot of truth in his(?) comment.
Do not pay!
When going gets tough for you, just refer to European Parliament Petition 1176/2013, Petition 1180/2013 and Petition 1556/2013 to the judge. That should make things bouncing your way.
Now, beyond any doubt I know answers to two crucial questions:
1. Who is behind the EBN fraud?
and
2. Why the Debt Recovery business has relocated to Czech Republic?
1. Who is behind the EBN fraud
After short investigation of two debt recovery companies who are sending threatening letters to the victims of EBN fraud I have found out that the man behind the EBN fraud is a notorious fraudster Adrian Wittmer. Wittmer is well known as the CEO of Intercable Verlag AG and was involved internationally in many similar frauds.
He was prosecuted by the Swiss Police and his company in Germany was closed after the Police raid. He has relocated his business into Czech Republic which is more tolerant towards fraudsters.
Adrian Wittmer is a founder of at least five fraudulent companies in Czech Republic; two of them are still active whilst the other three were closed. All companies allegedly have no employees and negligible turnover More information about these companies you may find from public data of the Czech Business Register. (https://www.detail.cz/osoba/adrian-wittmer-varsavska-715-36-praha/Hmp7dwW27XI/).
2. Why the Debt Recovery business has relocated to Czech Republic.
In Germany, as well in the EU, debt recovery is legally regulated and must be carried out according to the law, in accordance to the Regulation (EC) No 1896/2006. This regulation describes payment procedure for claims not contested by the defendant. This regulation simplifies, speeds up and reduces the costs of litigation in cases involving more than one EU country. The problem for DAD/EBN is that procedure procedure applies just to cases where the claim is not contested.
In case of the defendants’ complaint the matter ends up at the court which would judge against DAD in accordance to German Laws and Judgement of the German Supreme court which has rendered EBN fraud impracticable in Germany. Therefore, DAD is keen to settle accounts out of the court, but German legislation opposes any other than the lawful debt recovery.
In the past some attempts have ended by the police investigation and imprisonment for 2,5 years (Mr. Wilk and Mr. Schnell from Rostock, Germany). Therefore, the illegal part of the busies is relocated to Czech Republic which favors fraudsters, or at least, doesn’t persecute them.
Two active companies founded and owned by Adrian Wittmer Credit Business Resolution s.r.o. CCF Credit Collection Factoring s.r.o are now sending threatening letters, representing themselves as acting on behalf of EBN/DAD. In reality, they are doing the second illegal part in the fraud which is punishable by the German laws. Hence DAD/EBN have relocated that part of the busies into Czech Republic.
EBN in Hamburg is just the first stage in the business: harvesting signatures, issuing invoices and is sending payment reminders. They do just the part which is not prosecuted in Germany by the Criminal Police. What they do is bordering on matters punishable by the German laws but remain at the safe side. Therefore, we may conclude that the whole EBN fraud is illegal according to the German laws and presents no treat to those who have returned signed forms to DAD. DO NOT PAY – Just ignore them and enjoy ongoing vacations.