This website had a hand to play in helping law enforcement to take action or warn consumers early about the following debt relief scams.
For more information on the individual issues, click on the links below.
Dave Burke
Dave Burke and The Real Talk Network.
ABC Debt Relief
Extensive reporting about ABC Debt Relief reveled the underlying criminal past.
Timeline Debt Solutions
My early concern about Timeline Debt Solutions turned out to be warranted. Despite of their early grumblings that my initial review of them was wrong and they threatened to sue over it, they wound up going out of business and leaving their clients without services and without refunds. See more about Timeline Debt Solutions.
Credit Mastery
Lang Smith and his Credit Mastery package led to consumers not getting refunds.
Mass Joinder Marketing
This site worked closely with the California Bar in helping to identify law firms that were sending out deceptive mailers to lure consumers in to file suit against their lenders but pay large advanced fees that were split with non-attorneys.
United Financial Systems
The Florida based 501(c)3 nonprofit credit counseling group wound up taking consumer payments but not paying creditors. This site provide early warning of the problems and advice on how to get out before consumers were harmed.
Fake Process Servers
The site was featured in a newscast and one of the first, if not the first, to break the story about the network of fake process servers that are really debt collectors. You can read the original story here.
Fake Consumer Protection Agency
After writing about the fake consumer protection agency called “Department of Consumer Services Protection Commission” I brought the matter to the attention of the FTC. They later sued the company for their false and deceptive portrayal as a government consumer protection agency and reveled it to be part of a lead generation network to sell debt relief services. See World Law Debt and Others Sued by FTC for Misrepresentation.
You need to do more research on McCarthy Law, PLC. Kevin McCarthy is an unscrupulous money grubber. It makes perfect sense that he is also a debt consultant since he makes a habit of being part of a group of people who purchase other companies, run up their credit, pay themselves exorbitant salaries, and then let them go bankrupt before he’s even paid for the business. Look into his deal with RRR Refrigeration, Economy Air, and AccuTemp Refrigeration, Inc. He and a few of his friends from Chas Roberts decided to leave Chas, “buy” these three other companies, and then run them into the ground in less than one year while making a ton of money for himself. Chas Roberts sued them at the time for stealing proprietary information and using it in the new venture. Then, when he and his friends couldn’t pull ANY MORE MONEY FROM the business, they resigned, walked out on the company, and left the owners of AccuTemp and the rest to either go bankrupt, or drain every savings and retirement account they had in order to save their company. I wondered how it took only 8 months to financially destroy a company that had been built over 30 years from the ground up, and was a smooth operating business. Now I know, a person with the knowledge of a debt consolidator. Kevin McCarthy should be disbarred, tarred, and feathered for the lives he has ruined. I would bet my first born that the Phoenix HVAC group is not the first company he has destroyed, nor will it be the last.
Is it just me or is every Florida based “credit” relief company a scam? Berkshire Financial Solutions pulled the same “keep the payments and never pay creditors” racket up for years. Calls made to them were answered by maintenance staff using false names, when creditors began to show no payments made, and some savvy customers decided to go take a look physically at the business itself, the windows were boarded up, and tumbleweeds were rolling down the sidewalk. All calls and complaints prior, to the FTC were fruitless.
I once heard a great question asked, “Why are their so many scammer in Florida?” The answer, “The weather is nicer.”
Good one! No not all! there are a whole bunch who never charged up front settlement fees before the FTC Rule in Oct 2010 & way more now. In settlement at least, I can say if you go with a company that is paid WHEN the debt is settled, you should be safe.
Keep up the good work Steve
It was great to heard this.. There is a lots of debt relief scams out there.