Unfortunately we have recently been the victim of a fraudulent transaction with a client. The client came to us with a godaddy site tonight website in need of a makeover and internet marketing. Well, we offered her the marketing and as a concession and to make the marketing effective through seo we installed a drupal backbone with search engine friendly aliases.

Now first off, we normally never start work on a project that pays with an e-check until that e-check has cleared. But this woman really seemed like an upstanding individual with her demeaner and everything. We started work immediately.
 

The first sign of trouble is when the e-check went from 5 days to clear, on the 5th day it suddenly said it will take 2 weeks. We were suspicious because we know how e-checks work, so something was wrong. We did not stop marketing at this point. However, a few days later the e-check did not go through at all and we had to call the merchant. They told us that something happened on the clients end and the payment failed.
 

We contacted the client and told her, and she said she did not know why it went through as an e-check in the first place. We told her that work was frozen on her account and that the payment needed to be made immediately. She said that as soon as she got back to her office she would take care of it.

It has now been around two weeks and not only has she ceased accepting our phone calls, returning voice mails, and emails but she has done nothing in regards to sending the payment. It is clear that she not only fraudulently purchased our services with a bad e-check, but she knew she never intended to pay us. She milked us for as much as she could before the payment went bad.

I am actually sorry that we have marketed this persons service as much as we did because her own “clients” will most likely be the next victims. While I cannot tell you the name of the client or her business name because we NEVER share this information with anyone unless we get a court order, I can tell you she is in the credit repair business.

The reason I am telling you the business type is because it is a warning. So far, I have corresponded with a good amount of “credit repair professionals” and unfortunately they have all turned out to be iffy. On top of that is the loophole available for credit repair. As long as they do not call themselves a credit repair consultation then they are not regulated to the high standards of such and need no special licenses.

Literally anyone can call themselves a credit repair professional and offer you a service. The problem with this is that you will be at risk of losing your personal information to fraud. These “professionals” need your social security number in order to dispute negative items on your credit report. Your identity can be stolen and used for more shady business on their behalf.

I am not saying that all credit repair people are frauds. I am just saying that my experience with them has been. If you need to repair your credit you can do it yourself and without the risk. It is legal to dispute items on your credit report. Additionally it is easy to add new positive items to your report legally such as getting a secured credit card and making payments for 6 months. Or you can get a savings account at your local bank and obtain a loan for that deposited amount through that bank secured by your savings account.

If you are trying to buy a home you can get an FHA loan even if you have bad credit. With a 500 middle score you can still get a loan. Self employment is not an excuse. They use your tax returns to verify income. So there is not really a need for an unlicensed credit repair person to work on your behalf. You can make the change yourself and avoid bad transactions like we wish we should have by following our policy on clearing e-checks.

UPDATE:

We recently found out that this client along with a client referral was involved in mortgage fraud and lost their licenses. We are happy to part with them. We hope you will learn from this lesson.