Our Central Arizona Better Business Bureau has joined the Federal Trade Commission and other federal, state and local law enforcement and consumer protection agencies to seek out credit repair advertisements on the Internet.
This is from the Better Business Bureau: "Many credit repair operations ‘guarantee’ that they can remove negative information from consumers’ credit reports, even if the negative information is accurate and timely," said Elaine Hugunin, president/CEO of the BBB serving central and northern Arizona. This is absolutely not possible."
More than 60 credit repair operations have been identified as selling instructions about how consumers can substitute a false Social Security number for their current number and 'start fresh' with a new credit identity. They claim the scheme is perfectly legal.
"This is also not true. In fact, it is a felony, and any credit repair operation that claims it can improve a consumer’s credit report and charges for that service in advance is violating the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA), a new federal law designed to help consumers combat fraudulent credit repair scams," said Hugunin. "The only true way for a consumer to repair a poor credit report is through time and personal debt repayment plans."
