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In today’s consumer driven society, many retail stores have become experts at separating consumers from as much of their money as possible.  Some of the tricks that they are using to entice consumers into their stores and get them to purchase much more than they intended to are very devious and created by consultants that have been paid thousands of dollars to review shopper’s habits and develop ways to squeeze every last dollar that they can from the pockets of these consumers.  The best way to fight against these practices is to be aware of them and not let these retail rip-off artists take advantage of you any more.

Retail Rip-off Number 1 – The “Price Only Good For Today” Sale
Many retailers will send out an advertisement that they have a great deal on their items, but these amazing prices are only good for one day or within a certain time period.  They will have a limited supply of the items that they have offered for sale because the real goal of the advertisement is to get consumers in the door so that the retailer can sell them more items or another item at a higher price.  If you really want the item that has been advertised, go to the store to purchase that item only and resist any attempts by a salesperson to steer you towards another item or a higher priced alternative.

Retail Rip-off Number 2 – The Delay Tactic
Some retailers that sell higher priced items or items that you can negotiate the price on will tell the consumer that they are going to check paperwork or run a price by their manager so that they can leave the consumer to stew in silence alone for long periods of time.  They know that the longer that they can keep you in the store, the more time that you will have invested for purchasing their product and the less time that you will have to comparison shop at other retail stores.  After hours of waiting, you may be so tired of the process that you will sign anything to purchase the item and stop the shopping process.

Retail Rip-off Number 3 – The Wrong Price Ploy
This one is very common in places where a person typically purchases a lot of items at once, like at grocery stores, mass merchandisers, or clothing retailers.  They will advertise a sales price for the item on the shelves but when the purchase is rung up at the register, the price rings up as much higher.  Most retailers are betting that you do not notice until you get home and then consider it too much of a hassle to return to the store to get your money back.  If you do notice the higher price while still at the store, the store will take one of two tactics; politely adjust the price at the register while apologizing or telling the customer that they cannot adjust the price at the register and send you to customer service department, which is often located in a different part of the store, to try and get the price adjusted to the right amount.

Retail Rip-off Number 4 – The “Oh, We’re Out Of It” Tactic
Some retail stores will advertise a desirable item at a low price to draw consumers into the store, but will only have very few of the items on hand, not nearly enough to satisfy the demand that they have created with the low sales price.  When a consumer comes in to buy the sold out item, the salesperson will regretfully tell them that they are all out of that particular item and will try to steer the person to a higher priced item instead.  If you complain enough, they may give you a rain check for the item that you wanted but many stores will have a disclaimer that no rain checks will be given for a sale item that is out of stock.

Retail Rip-off Number 5 – Trying To Scare You Into An Extended Warranty
Some retailers make more money by selling the extended warranty than they do selling the product so they will push hard for the consumer to purchase the warranty, even if it really isn’t feasible for the item being purchased.  In some cases, the price of the extended warranty is much more than it would actually cost to repair the product in the event that something did go wrong, but the salesperson will not tell you that.  If it seems like the salesperson is trying much too hard to sell you the extended warranty or are using words such as “costly”, “regret”, or “valuable protection”, chances are the warranty is not worth what you are paying for it.

Many people around the nation are finding themselves deeply in debt and do not know how to get themselves back on secure financial footing.  As they become more desperate for a solution to their problems, a large number of these people fall for debt elimination scams that promise to eliminate their debt and help them to start anew, but often lead to the person being deeper in debt, sued by their creditors, or even thrown in jail.  Scam artists have become quite savvy at taking advantage of people in dire financial situations, but there are some common indicators that you can look for to determine whether the programs being offered to help you eliminate your debt is a scam.

Scam 1 – Giving You A New Credit Identity
There are a number of companies out there that offer to eliminate a person’s total personal debt by giving the person a new credit identity.  This is typically accomplished by creating a fake social security number and new credit profile for the person.  The company promises that the person will now be able to apply for credit and other types of loans using the new credit profile so that the creditors will not be viewing the person’s bad credit history of the past.

The main problem with this type of scam is that it is very, very illegal.  If you are caught using a made up social security profile to obtain credit under false pretenses, it is considered to be a federal crime and you could be prosecuted and sent to jail.  Obtaining a new credit profile is not worth a felony conviction, jail time, and a potentially ruined life when you are finally released from jail.

Scam 2 – The “This Debt Is Illegal” Ploy
Some of the companies that offer debt elimination services tell their customers that some of the fees that have been charged on the person’s debt are illegal or that there is a fundamental flaw in the credit agreement on the part of the creditor that would make the entire amount of the debt void.  Some of these companies will even go so far as to tell the person that the company has agreed to discharge their debt because of the flaw or that the company has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the customer and for them to stop paying the creditor until the lawsuit has been resolved.

This technique never works because the premise that the company is basing its solution on is not true.  Even if you were able to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that some of the fees that were charged to the account were in error, you would still owe on the rest of the balance of the account.  People that fall for this type of scam often find themselves much deeper in debt with no legal recourse at a later date or find themselves sued by the creditor for the balance of the account, all related interest payments, and hefty penalty fees for not paying their payments on time.  The person’s credit score will be destroyed and they will not be able to obtain any type of credit account for a very long period of time.

There are more people in debt across the nation today than at any other time period in history, as many people have been using credit to spend beyond their means and purchase large homes that they can not afford.  Many of these people are now having trouble paying all of their bills and are growing increasingly desperate as they find themselves falling farther and farther behind.  Many of these people may be tempted to turn to a debt relief company to help them eliminate their debt, but in some cases, turning to these companies can cause more harm to your financial future.

Although there are some debt relief programs that may be able to help you reduce the amount that you owe to creditors or help you make a plan to regain your financial freedom, there are also many debt relief companies doing business that will not do anything to help you reduce the amount of money that you owe and may even drive you deeper into debt by charging excessive fees for doing little to no work on your case.  Some people are so desperate for debt relief that they ignore the warning signs that the company may be scamming them and end up getting deeper into financial trouble.

There are some things that should be kept in mind when looking for a company to help you with your debt to keep you from making the wrong decision and owing more money than you currently owe.

1.  If it sounds too good to be true, then it is probably a scam.
There are many debt relief companies that promise to settle your debt for pennies on the dollar, wipe away your debt without hurting your credit score, or repair your credit in a quick and easy manner.  None of these actions can be accomplished legally and attempting to settle your debt or repair your credit in these ways can create just as many legal problems as financial ones.  If a company is telling you that they can do this for you, avoid this company like the plague because they are lying to you.

2.  The company is charging high up front fees.
If the company is requiring you to pay high fees, often more than $500, up front before they begin to work on your financial situation, this may be another red flag that the company is more concerned about padding their bottom line than with helping you with your financial problems.  The owners of companies offering debt relief are being sent to prison in increasing numbers because they have charged their customers outrageous fees, $7,500 per customer in one case in Ohio, for debt relief help that they would not or could not perform.  Even if these scam artists get sent to prison, that does not mean that the fees that you have paid will be refunded to you, meaning that you will be deeper in debt than when you began.

There are several legal ways that can be used to reduce the amount of debt that you owe to your creditors or lower the interest rates that are being charged on your debt, but they all involve talking to the creditors and explaining your financial situation.  Many of these creditors will be willing to work with you because obtaining some of the money that is owed is better than receiving nothing because the person was forced into bankruptcy.  There are a number of different government programs that can assist a person with navigating through these financial systems and getting the assistance that they need and these government agencies will not charge you thousands of dollars for the help.

One night as you are looking over the endless bills that seem to arrive at your home, a snippet of sound from the television catches your ear. A commercial for a debt relief company is on the television, claiming that they can reduce or eliminate your debt for pennies on the dollar. As a debt strapped homeowner, the offer seems like a life line out of the problems that have been plaguing you and almost seems too good to be true…

For many homeowners, the reality of many debt relief companies is that they are too good to be true. Individuals that use the worst of these companies find that they have paid hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in fees for the company to do absolutely nothing to help them. Many of these companies make extravagant promises that would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to keep, but they are convincing enough that thousands of individuals fall for their tricks every year.

Common Debt Relief Scams

Debt Settlement Programs – There are many debt relief companies that will claim that they can negotiate with your creditors to allow you to pay off all of your debts with one lump sum payment – often as little as 30% of the balance of all of the accounts. This is virtually impossible to do and many individuals find that any payments they make to the company miraculously disappear while the total balance on all of their accounts stays the same.

Non-Profit For-Profit Companies – Some for-profit debt relief companies claim to be a non-profit company to lure their customers into a false sense of security about the company and their mission. The companies that are caught using this practice are prosecuted under the law.

Misleading Charges – Individuals that have had dealings with some of the worst offenders in the debt relief industry have found that money paid towards lowering the balances on their debt accounts have instead been applied to numerous fees that the company has levied against them, often without their knowledge. A common example of this is the $300 referral fee that some of these companies charge to refer you to some other company that can supposedly help you better than they can.

Lower Interest Rate Promises – A number of misleading debt relief companies will offer to lower the interest rate on all of your debt accounts by contacting the lender and renegotiating the rate – after you have paid $500 or more in fees for the work of course. The companies will then disclose that your creditors will not lower the interest rates on the monies you owe them and the debt relief company keeps your fee for their inconvenience.

Complaints against debt relief companies are becoming more numerous each year and the Federal Trade Commission has sued more than a dozen of these companies in the last several years because of misleading business practices. Consumers need to be aware that there is no magic remedy for debt relief and if the claims of a debt relief company seem too good to be true, then there is a good chance that the claims are part of a scam. There are numerous ways for an individual to get out of debt without declaring bankruptcy, but they all require personal responsibility, changing the individual’s spending habits, and time.

Identity theft is a crime that victimizes a person twice; once when the crime is discovered and again when the victim tries to repair the damage that was done in their name.  If the person is lucky, the identity theft is discovered as soon as the person attempts to use their identity illegally.  The unlucky victims do not discover that someone has stolen their identity until they are turned down when they attempt to get credit or they view their credit history and find accounts that they had not opened.

Many identity thieves are good at hiding their tracks and you would never know that your identity had been stolen.  The accounts that are opened using your name and social security number are often diverted to dummy addresses so the individual would not even know that the accounts had gone into default.  If the phone number used for the account is a fictional number as well, the victim will not receive any of the collection calls for the account either.

As if this was not devastating enough, the victim will often have a hard time convincing the creditor that the account was not actually theirs.  If the identity theft is discovered quickly enough, a person can limit the damage fairly quickly by calling the creditor, canceling the account, and explaining the situation to the customer service representative.  In some cases, the individual will have to fill out a statement verifying that they were the victim of identity theft and allow the prosecution of whoever is found to be using their name and credit without their permission.

If the identity theft is not discovered quickly, then the victim will face a whole host of new problems.  Many creditors will only allow a person to dispute a charge within a certain period of time so if the theft is not discovered within that time limit, the victim may be on the hook for the charges.  Some other creditors require that the person prove that it was not them who opened the account and, if the company has already sold the debt to a collection agency, the victim may be receiving collection calls for a long time afterward.

Being proactive about limiting your risk for identity theft is the best way to ensure that you will not be a victim.  Check your credit report regularly to be sure that no accounts have been opened in your name that you are unaware of and keep your social security number secure so that identity thieves will not have it to open any credit accounts.  If there have been any unauthorized or suspicious activities on your credit report, report them immediately to limit the damage done to your credit and your life.

If you perform a simple Google search for debt reduction, you’ll find over three million results of companies which claim to help to eliminate and reduce your debt dramatically. This really shouldn’t be all that surprising considering how much consumer credit people are making use of in this modern era. Credit cards, home equity loans, title loans, payday loans, 90 days same as cash, auto loans, you name it; people are borrowing money through it. A lot of people are up to their eyeballs in debt, and want out. There are a number of companies which prey upon consumers that will claim to eliminate your debt without all of the work, however they’re scams, and you should avoid them.

One of the major scams in this field is the “debt elimination letter” scam, they’re all scams, stay far away. The basic premise of this scam is that for a rather large fee, the “debt elimination agency” will send you a letter which you can show your creditors to get your debts waived. A lot of people would love this type of letter, but they have no legal basis in the real world. Most of the time if you try to use one of these letters the company will just laugh at you. Instead, actually use that money to pay down some of the debt instead. A lot of these agencies falsely claim that some of the fees credit card companies charge are illegal so the entire debt should be void. Sometimes these letters are called “redemption certificates and “bondage for discharge of debt.”

There’s also the “illegality of the credit card” scam. It’s similar to the debt elimination letter scam, but instead they claim that the entire credit card system is illegal, and since the system is illegal they cannot legally charge you for your debt. They will often charge thousands of dollars for such letters, stay far away from them.

Finally, there’s the “new credit identity” scam. In this scam, companies will offer to create a how new social security identity for you so that you don’t have to live with your past financial sins, and get a clean slate for your credit record. It’s actually very illegal to do this and will probably get you in trouble with the feds.

If you are in debt, there’s no magic formula. If you absolutely think you have to go to a debt consolidation company or a debt reduction company, go to Consumer Credit Counseling Services, and nobody else. Chances are you don’t even need CCCS, instead just work very hard and work to eliminate your debt quickly and systematically. Take extra jobs, cut down on your living expenses; that’s the only way to do it.