Can You Identify A Credit Repair Scam?
In today’s environment of high debt levels and declining wages, it is no wonder that so many individuals have marginal or poor credit scores and are looking for a way to repair them. There are many scam artists out there willing to prey on those desperately seeking a solution and it seems that another new scam to obtain money from these solution seekers appears every week. Would you be able to identify a credit repair scam if it was presented to you by a seasoned scammer? Here is how you can identify some of the most common credit repair scams used today so that you do not become a victim of these thieves.
The File Segregation Scam
This seems to be one of the more prevalent credit repair scams out there, with thousands of individuals becoming victims of the scam each year. The way that the scam works is that the scammer obtains an employee identification number from the IRS to be used in place of the individual’s social security number, thereby divorcing all new credit information obtained through the employee identification number from previous credit information linked to the person’s social security number. Some people go a step further and use new addresses and phone numbers with the employee identification number to make it even harder to associate the two accounts.
Although this may seem like a great way to wipe the slate clean and start over, it could end up costing you a great deal of money and a criminal conviction. In essence, the scam artist is teaching the consumer how to create a false identity, the use of which is a felony anywhere in the nation. The price that is paid for using this method is way more than you will actually pay the scam artist to create this fraudulent identity.
The Negative Information Removal Scam
Some scam artists will tell potential victims that they can remove negative information from a credit report, for a nominal fee of course. The problem is that accurate negative information on a credit report cannot be removed and may be visible on your credit report for seven years or more. The most that any legitimate credit repair company can do is obtain a copy of your credit report, review it for errors, and notify the credit reporting bureau of any discrepancies that they find. This you can do on your own for a much lower cost.
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