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It began with a Chinese-language news story about international students in Canada maxing out their credit cards on computers and clothes before leaving the country.

That led to an investigation that discovered a phenomenon involving some temporary residents of Canada who depart the country without settling credit-card debt, fulfilling their retail borrowing commitments, or honouring their automobile payments.

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George Lee, an immigration lawyer in Burnaby, has been aware of the problem of transnational consumer debt for years. He’s been drawn into multiple lawsuits in which residents of Canada scour the world to find people who have left the country without reimbursing what they owe.

“This phenomenon has been going on now for quite a while. I’ve dealt with agreements or contracts like this. Sometimes a credit card company has to go after the person. But the person is in China or somewhere else. And the client doesn’t have much power to get them,” says Lee.