Klarna fraud claim rejected - what can I do?

Js1994

Hi all, I’d really appreciate some advice as I’m hitting a brick wall.

Back in July, I discovered someone had used my personal details (name, address) to take out a £400 Klarna Pay Later in 30 days agreement with Argos. I already have a Klarna account which I use and have never missed a payment. Someone had used a fake email and mobile number. I didn’t know about this until Klarna refused a purchase I tried to make one day which was denied and it told me I was in arrears of £400 when I could see my account was showing about £11. I reported it to Klarna immediately, and also logged it with Action Fraud (I have a crime reference number).

Despite this, Klarna told me their investigation found “no signs of fraud” and insisted the order was placed by me. I escalated to their complaints team, but again they said the same. I then went to the Financial Ombudsman Service, only to be told they couldn’t look into it because Klarna’s Pay Later in 30 product is exempt from regulation.

To make matters worse, I’ve just checked Credit Karma and found Klarna have already marked a missed payment for June against my credit file. I’ve disputed this with TransUnion and sent them my Action Fraud report and Klarna correspondence, but I’m worried Klarna will keep reporting missed payments and trash my credit.

I’m on maternity leave, so this is adding a huge amount of stress.

Any advice or shared experiences would be massively appreciated.

Aylesbury_Duck

If they want to recover the money from you they're going to have to have some evidence you placed the order that's more convincing than your evidence that you didn't.  I don't think they have it, a court would regard your reporting it immediately as not being typical behaviour of a fraudster.  On that basis, you don't have to worry about the debt itself.  Let them issue proceedings if they want to, I dont think they will.

As for credit scoring, I don't know enough about it to know how detrimental the alleged debt might be.  I have read advice to some people that top much stock is placed on it.