With foreclosures, short sales and credit card defaults at record levels, an aggressive breed of firms has sprung up offering to power-wash consumers' damaged credit files and boost credit scores, thereby eliminating records of bankruptcies and mortgage delinquencies, even when the information is accurate.
Such services - promoted on the Internet and in radio ads - are attractive to people who want to buy a house but whose credit scores are too low for a mortgage through the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
The problem with these companies, say federal and state authorities, is that their promises may be deceptive and illegal. On Oct. 23, the Federal Trade Commission and 24 state agencies announced the kickoff of "Operation Clean Sweep," targeting credit fix-up operations nationwide that allegedly take consumers' money in exchange for boosts in credit scores that they cannot deliver.
In the first phase, the FTC filed suits against seven companies, alleging multiple violations of the Credit Repair Organizations Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act. Under the credit repair law, organizations or individuals cannot collect fees upfront from customers before rendering services to amend their credit bureau files. That law also prohibits companies from promising improvements that are not feasible, such as elimination of accurate records on foreclosures and bankruptcies that typically remain on national bureau files for seven to 10 years.
The FTC said the new legal actions were prompted by the receipt of more than 4,400 consumer complaints against firms in 22 states. Working with state agencies and information from local Better Business Bureaus, the commission investigated credit repair companies' Internet pitches and other advertising media, and sometimes had investigators pose as potential clients to document allegedly illegal pitches.
The FTC's suit against Clean Credit Report Services Inc. quoted a sales representative as promising that within "45 days to four months," the firm would find "the best solution to get those [negative] things deleted for you so that your credit score can increase. We want to get your scores at least between the 650 to the 700 ... mark, but we have had clients [increase] even higher than that."
