Credit Scams

Credit repair.

Credit-repair companies run advertisements in newspapers, radio, TV, and the Internet, offering consumers assistance, for a price, to clean up their credit histories. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns that many of the claims these companies make?that they can remove judgments, liens, and other unfavorable information from credit records, are false. They cannot legally remove accurate negative information from a credit report and any legitimate help they can offer can be pursued by consumers themselves, at little or no cost.

Identity theft.

This crime occurs when con artists steal credit card numbers, social security numbers, mother's maiden names, or other personally-identifying information without one's knowledge, to tap into the good credit histories of consumers. They then set up new credit accounts, charge purchases to existing accounts, or drain bank accounts. Frequently, consumers don't know that their credit identities have been stolen until they get bills for credit card accounts that they never opened, see charges on their bills that they didn't know anything about, or discover that their bank accounts have been fraudulently accessed.

Congress passed the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998, which makes it a federal crime to knowingly transfer or use another person's means of identification to commit any unlawful activity.