With the economy upside down scammers are on the hunt. I have received more email scam offers in the last 2 weeks than I have ever received. They’re coming at 20-30 a day offering cash, sweepstakes, new identity and free cars.  You need to be very diligent right now because these fraudsters are banking on our desperate times to cash in.

Even credit repair scams are up more than usual. Companies offering full guarantees of removing any item and offering new identities are on the prowl. The FTC has launched yet another operation against these fraudsters.

FTC’s ‘Operation Clean Sweep’ Targets ‘Credit Repair’ Companies.  The Federal Trade Commission, in cooperation with 25 state agencies in 23 states, will hold a press conference to announce a crackdown on operations that deceptively claim they can remove negative information from consumers’ credit reports – even if that information is accurate and timely.

Fox News also discussed the sweep operation today warning consumers to be careful and that if it sounds too good to be true. It is. If anyone offers to fix your credit for a fee consider the following.

• They must give you a three day cooling off to cancel the contract.
• They cannot collect the money in advance for work yet to be performed.
• The company must be licensed and follow the CROA, Credit Repair Organization Act.
• The company cannot give you a new identity or social security number.
• Avoid offers to let you piggy bank on a consumers’ A credit for a fee.
• Offers for loans with ultra high rates and fees or unacceptable terms.

While I agree that scams are rampant and you need to be VERY cautious, I also hope the FTC discusses that one in four credit reports contain errors and the lack of trust within the credit system is what causes consumers to seek help.

The credit bureaus have accuracy issues that we as consumers have to deal with and often getting those issues resolved is impossible. Consumers get frustrated and overwhelmed and ultimately seek out help. That is why education is so important. Not just education about scams but education about how to be your own credit repair expert so that you can fix problems yourself without running up against stall after stall.

Sometimes it seems that the these warnings are meant to put fear into us about the potential scams but they stop short of fully educating us. The FTC has education on their website about basic credit repair issues but there is a lot of education still needed about debt collectors and zombie debts, expired statutes, credit bureau stall, credit mishandling of information and so on.

You can learn more about credit issues in our credit library.