The Federal Trade Commission and 24 state agencies today announced a crackdown on 33 operations that deceptively claim they can remove negative information from consumers’ credit reports, even if that information is accurate and timely. In the seven FTC actions announced today the Commission seeks to halt the defendants’ allegedly credit repair investigationunlawful business practices, prohibit further violations, and make them pay consumer redress and give up their ill-gotten gains. In addition, the FTC announced three related credit repair cases earlier this year.

‘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.’

In response to thousands of complaints from consumers throughout the nation, the FTC launched ‘Operation Clean Sweep’ with 24 state agencies in 22 states. In the cases announced today, the Commission 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 agency also alleged that the defendants violated the CROA by charging an advance fee for credit repair services. The 26 state actions include alleged violations of state laws and the CROA.

According to complaints filed by the FTC:

Nationwide Credit Services, Inc. and James R. Dooley,

Clean Credit Report Services, Inc., Ricardo A. Miranda, Daniel R. Miranda, and Ruthy Villabona

Successful Credit Service Corporation, also doing business as Success Credit Services, and Tracy Ballard, also known as Tracy Ballard-Straughn

Advantage Credit Repair LLC and Mark D. Solomon

RCA Credit Services, LLC, Rick Lee Crosby, Jr., and Brady Wellington

Latrese & Kevin Enterprises, Inc., also d/b/a Hargrave & Associates Financial Solutions, Latrese Hargrave, also known as Latrese V. Williams, and Kevin Hargrave, Sr

ACE Group, Inc., also d/b/a as American Credit Experts, Inc., The Ace Group, Inc., The Ace Group, and ACE; Legal Credit Repair Center, Inc., also d/b/a LCRC, Michael Singer, Melvin Kessler, and Gerald Roth

Advice for Consumers

How can you avoid turning credit repair into credit despair? Here are a few suggestions:

  • Avoid any company that wants you to pay for credit repair services before they provide any services. It is against the law.
  • Avoid any credit repair company that will not tell you your legal rights and what you can do, yourself, for free.
  • Avoid any credit repair company that tells you not to contact a credit reporting company directly.
  • Avoid any credit repair company that advises you to dispute all of the information in your credit report.
  • Avoid any company that suggests creating a ‘new’ credit identity – and then, a new credit report – by applying for an Employer Identification Number to use instead of your Social Security number. That is against the law. If you follow illegal advice and commit fraud, you also may be subject to prosecution.