Oh No! Look Who’s Not
Happy
About Debt Elimination (Part 2)
Continued from Part 1 on
debt
elimination... remember, my commentary is
highlighted in
yellow!
These schemes are proliferating on the Internet, and the
organizers are charging borrowers substantial up-front fees and
commissions based on the total amount of debt that can be
forgiven. Members of the public are being harmed as borrowers
generally pay significant amounts of money without eliminating
or reducing their overall debt obligations - which of course is
not in fact possible through any of these programs. Also, the
cessation of legitimate loan payments increases the risk of a
foreclosure or other legal action being taken against the
borrower, and in addition could negatively affect a borrower's
credit rating. Financial institutions may find that the use of
the specious documents complicates the collection process, and
may at least temporarily prevent any final action against the
consumer.
It is important to
note that these shysters have used the power of the Internet to
rake in millions of dollars off of unsuspecting victims. On the
surface their websites look totally legit. In many cases, if
you didn’t know what to look for and the right questions to
ask, you’d probably get burned. Their sales representatives are
so slick; they could sell outdated ketchup to a tomato farmer.
Once they start their well choreographed sales pitch, they
absolutely do not relent. By the time they are done, most
people are so desperate, they will do almost anything to pay
that upfront fee.
Examiners and banking organizations should be cognizant of
these scams, and the public should avoid becoming involved with
them.
This statement
cannot be made any clearer, “the public should avoid becoming
involved with them.” When it comes to
debt
elimination,
heed their advice. Don’t become one of the countless number of
people who fell for the debt elimination trap and are in a
worse state financially.
Bank holding companies and state member banks should modify
their policies and procedures as needed to ensure that staff
involved in any way in a lending function is able to identify
and respond appropriately to these current schemes.
Just to show you how
cunning these crooks are, banks and other companies are being
forced to adjust their policies and procedures in order to
avoid getting burned by them. Think about that for a moment…
the impact these debt
elimination schemes is far reaching. So much so that they
have even put banks on high alert.
If an institution supervised by the Federal Reserve is
presented with fraudulent documents as described in this SR
letter, the institution is expected to file a Suspicious
Activity Report (SAR) in accordance with the Board's suspicious
activity reporting rules. The banking organization must also
retain the written materials associated with the purported debt
elimination scheme as supporting documentation to the SAR, as
required by the Board's SAR rules.
Reserve Banks are asked to distribute this SR letter to
domestic and foreign banking organizations supervised by the
Federal Reserve in their districts. Questions regarding
apparent fraudulent debt elimination
schemes can be directed to Leonard Zawistowski, Senior Special
Investigator, at (202) 452-6488.
Richard Spillenkothen
Director
There you have it, debt elimination in nutshell. Please, I urge
you, don't believe the hype or any of the compeling sales
pitches. Do your homework prior to sigining anything and never
but never pay any upfront fees to straighten out your debts
unless you are paying a retainer to an attorney.
Oh No! Look Who’s Not
Happy About Debt Elimination (Part 1)
William Phillips brings a degree in
economics and an unwavering passion to help fellow Americans
come from under the clutches of debt. He believes that with the
right debt advice or debt counseling, anyone can recover from
the stresses of being overwhelmed with credit card bills and
other debts.
For more information on this topic or any other issue related
to getting out of debt, living debt free, debt management, debt
relief, the Fair Debt Collection
Practices Act and stopping debt collectors in their tracks,
please visit www.DebtErasure.com
Source: http://DebtErasure.com
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