Loan and Debt Elimination Scams
There is one thing you can count on from crooks and scam artists and that is when good people are in trouble they - the scam artists - will come out of the woodwork with all kinds of offers to “help”. With many of today’s consumers facing dire times with mortgage debt, credit card debts, and other types of loan issues, more and more scams are popping up with what look like reliable and reputable ways to ease the pain. Be careful.
One of the most popular of these scams, and these often take place via online transactions, are those that promise to eliminate or reduce the victim’s current debt. These scams often approach consumers who are in jeopardy of losing their homes, those who are deeply in debt to credit card companies, and those who own small businesses and need help with credit problems.
The scam is to ask for an up-front fee which will usually run from around $400 up to nearly $8000. In return they promise to take certain actions ( on your behalf ) to get your creditors to either forgive your entire debt amount or reduce it significantly. Many government banking regulators are becoming alarmed at how sophisticated these scams have become as well as how bold and fradulent they are.
One recent scam that has been identified includes fradulently and illegally using the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Customer Complaint Form which is a three-page document that is freely available for legitimate purposes. In this particular scam, this three-page form is included within the package of information and documents provided to the victim. Adding this form to the package gives the overall package a sense of ligitimacy. The potential victim is then asked to sign the document but to not fill in any of the other required information. The scam company will then fill in the information but this information will be false, pure fiction in most cases, and forward the document to the OCC where it is hoped that legal action will be brought against the creditors. This scam does not work because the incorrect information that the scammers used to initiate the investigation was not true. In many cases, the person who paid for this service will end up in very serious legal trouble with the creditors and may actually end up with a lower credit score and legal suit brought against them.