Themis & Dike

[RogerIMP]

Alright. So, basically, a while ago, I got on this adult dating site. And, I paid for some credit to use on that site so I could have more matches.
However, after an hour, I realized it was all bots. The platform in question is "Benaughty.com", or it at least used to be. Since their site has just ultimately become void.
I thought nothing of it and forgot about it.

Fats forward 1 month ago. And, I got an email from a German law firm named "Themis & Dike" saying I owe them over 200eur!
I immediately emailed them, saying that the site was a scam and that they couldn't possibly be performing debt collection for a fraudulent site.
They never answered that mail, and I simply got on with my life.

And now today, I got an email from them "reminding" me to pay that debt. yet, they still obviously haven't answered my mail from back then. They say that their debt collection is an inquiry from a company named Novalnet AG, based in Münich, Germany. And, I'm not sure if it helps, but I live in Belgium.

Please help me.
I have no idea what to do, nor do I have the financial strength to pay for the debt or any actual legal advice from a lawyer.

[R0b]

Hi,

Unfortunately, this is a UK based law forum so any laws relating to Belgium or Germany are not going to get much of a response. I suspect the letters are simply demands for the debt to be paid, I would be inclined that there is not much of an intention to start legal proceedings. Even if they did, European Union consumer laws typically protect consumers such that if there are cross border disputes then the party claiming the debt would need to sue in the country the consumer is based - this is a general assumption but I can't say if there are local laws that deviate from this position which I would be surprised because it may go breach EU laws.

If I were you, I would be inclined to send a strongly worded letter repeating what you said previously that you deny the alleged debt, the website provider/owner is clearly running a scam by falsely pretending there are more matches/real users available if a premium is paid, when in fact it is full of bots pretending to be real people. You consider their website and operations a scam and/or fraudulent and not only that, they they have failed to respond to your last letter.

I believe that harassment in Belgium is a criminal offence and liable to a fine under the Criminal Code, so you may want to weave in also that you believe their continued demands for fraudulent operations is harassment and a considered a criminal offence in Belgium and therefore you demand that they close down their case otherwise you reserve the right to take legal action yourself against the website provider in your own country.

Of course you may not want to start legal proceedings at all, but the point is that your letter should be serious and show some teeth in which case they may back down and not bother you anymore. You should only be worried if there is a letter demanding the debt and if not paid they will start legal proceedings. However, I believe this firm doesn't have much power other than to chase debt and hopefully scare you into paying up.