FTC and State Agencies Target 36 'Credit Repair' Operations

The Federal Trade Commission said late last week that it, along with government agencies in 22 states, launched a “crackdown” on dozens of companies that claimed they could remove negative information from consumers’ credit reports.

Dubbed “Operation Clean Sweep” by the FTC, the crackdown netted an announced seven enforcement actions that seek to halt the defendants’ allegedly unlawful business practices, prohibit further violations, and make them pay consumer redress and give up their ill-gotten gains.

In the cases announced last week, the FTC charged seven operations with violating the FTC Act and the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) by making false and misleading statements, such as claiming they can substantially improve consumers’ credit reports by removing accurate, negative information from their credit reports.

The FTC also said that the crackdown led to 26 state enforcement actions.

“Companies that promise they are able to scrub your credit reports of accurate, negative information for a fee are lying – plain and simple,” said Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Under federal law, accurate, negative information can be reported for up to seven years, and some bankruptcies can be reported for up to 10 years.”

State law enforcement efforts involved the attorney general offices in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia; the justice departments of North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin; Idaho’s Department of Finance; Louisiana’s Office of Financial Institutions; Vermont’s Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities & Health Care Administration; and Wisconsin’s Department of Financial Institutions.

The companies that were hit with FTC enforcement actions include Florida-based Nationwide Credit Services, Inc.; Clean Credit Report Services, Inc., also of Florida; California-based Successful Credit Service Corporation; and Illinois-based Advantage Credit Repair LLC.