The people of Michigan are being harassed by bad credit repair outfits and debt collectors. The Attorney General Bill Schuette released a list of the highest ranked consumer complaints of 2014. At the top of the list was harassment from credit and financial services. 2014 saw more than 1,700 complaints against credit and financial services like bad credit repair companies, mortgage brokering, payday lending, and debt collection. Many of the complaints against these services were made by consumers with bad credit, who claimed they were threatened by illegitimate collection agencies. The state of Michigan is launching an investigation into the complaints.
Last week, the New York State Office of the Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission joined forces to crack down on illegitimate operations centered in Buffalo, N.Y. Although debt collectors have the right to contact people who owe debts to organizations, but aren’t allowed to threaten, harass, or intimidate consumers. According to consumers, callers claiming to be from law firms or government affiliated entities, have been harassing Michigan consumers for at least a year. Some of these entities even claimed to represent the FBI, threatening to send consumers to jail if they did not pay.
Consumers have also received calls from impersonators saying they represent the U.S. Treasury and even the IRS. Schuette’s office wants to warn the public about these emerging scams, including a new scam called ransomware – a type of malware that restricts access to an infected computer system. He also warns consumers of mobile payment systems that will implant viruses on mobile phones that steal money.
There are so many scams out there that it can make it difficult for legitimate bad credit repair services to gain consumer trust. If you want to open a bad credit merchant account to help consumers fix their credit, the professionals at eMerchantBroker.com provide a low hassle online resource that will give merchants with bad credit a chance to process checks, debit and credit, and other forms of payment. Our skilled merchant advisers provide a full suite of payment processing services for merchants in high risk services like debt collection and bad credit repair.