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FTC Shuts Down 20 "Credit Repair" Schemes

June 13, 2006

Credit Counseling • FTC Charges Home Buying Operation With Credit Repair Scheme • FTC Charges Express Consolidation Misleads Consumers • Debt Free Agrees to West Virginia Refunds • Ohio Sues "Credit Counselor" For Deceiving, Threatening Consumers • Debt Management Telemarketers Settle FTC Charges • FTC Shuts Down 20 "Credit Repair" Schemes • FTC Sues "Debt Elimination" Programs • AmeriDebt Founder Settles FTC Charges for $35 Million • IRS Plans to Yank Tax-Exempt Status of 20 Credit Counselors • IRS Revokes Tax-Exempt Status of Four Credit Counseling Agencies • Three Debt Management Firms Settle Federal Charges • AmeriDebt To Close as Part of FTC Settlement • Credit Counseling Riddled With Fast-Buck Promoters, Congress Finds • Credit Counselors Not Always What They Seem • Credit Counseling Scams On the Rise • Lenders Ratchet Down Payments to Credit Counselors --- • More about Credit Counseling

"Project Credit Despair," the Federal Trade Commission crackdown on 20 operations that deceptively claimed they could remove negative but accurate information from consumers' credit reports has yielded another court order.

Bad Credit B Gone and owner Joseph A. Graziola III were found by a court to be making false and misleading claims, and billing in advance for its services. The company was ordered to pay more than $322,000 in fines and restitution.

In response to thousands of consumer complaints, the FTC began coordinating the crackdown last year with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the State of Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions, and other state law enforcement agencies.

The actions involved operations throughout the nation, many of which promised to remove accurate and timely information from consumers' credit reports, and typically charged hundreds of dollars in advance for the service.

The FTC charged Bad Credit B Gone with violating the FTC Act by making false and misleading statements, including claims that they could substantially improve consumers' credit reports by permanently removing negative information that was accurate and not obsolete.

They also violated the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) by requiring advance payment for their credit repair services.

Under the court's ruling, the defendants are permanently prohibited from misrepresenting that they can improve substantially most consumers' credit reports by permanently removing negative information from the reports, even when the information is accurate and not obsolete; misrepresenting any fact material to a person's decision to purchase credit repair services from them; misrepresenting any material fact regarding anything sold or offered for sale by them; and assisting others who violate these provisions.

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