Wolfe v. MBNA America Bank

An identity thief obtained a credit card in Wolfe's (plaintiff) name from MBNA (defendant) using an address Wolfe never lived at; after the thief ran up debt beyond the credit limit, MBNA sent the account to collections and reported the debt to credit bureaus under Wolfe's name despite his notifying the bank of the identity theft, damaging his credit and costing him a job opportunity. MBNA also sent arbitration notices to the thief's address, resulting in an arbitration award against Wolfe. Wolfe sued, claiming MBNA had a duty to verify the application and to investigate before reporting the debt; MBNA moved to dismiss, arguing it owed no duty to prevent third- party criminal conduct.

Whether, in some jurisdictions, banks and credit-card issuers have a duty to verify credit-card application information before issuing a credit card, using reasonable, cost-effective methods that prevent identity theft.