It's crucial to understand that credit repair is not always a scam. Credit repair services can be very helpful in improving credit scores and credit reports. Unfortunately, fraudulent credit repair companies prey on vulnerable consumers and give credit repair a bad name.
This article provides information on how credit repair scams work and how to identify and report them.
How Does a Credit Repair Scam Work?
Credit repair scams typically involve fake credit repair companies promising to fix credit histories or improve the credit ratings of people with huge loans or credit card debts. The fake company then takes payment upfront but never delivers on its promises.
These companies often use false, deceptive, and misleading advertising to lure and convince people that they can fix their credit rating quickly.
How to Know if a Credit Repair Company Is Legitimate or a Scam
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns consumers to be wary of credit repair companies that:
- Promise to erase bad credit history or credit records or guarantee to improve credit reports. Such promises are illegal under the Federal Credit Repair Organizations Act.
- Ask you to pay before providing services.
- Do not respond to requests for documentation of the credit repair process and results.
- Recommend that you do not contact any credit bureau directly
- Use vague or confusing language that makes it difficult to understand what services the company offers and the costs associated with credit repair.
- Require consumers to sign contracts that contain unfair or illegal terms.
- Advise you to mislead credit opening companies
- Ask you to file a fake theft report and claim that someone opened an account fraudulently that led to a negative rating.
- Not explaining your rights to you
- Suggests using a CPN or EIN
- Company name/website closely matches with a larger company or government agency.
How to Report a Credit Repair Scam
You can report credit repair and other phone scams to your local authorities and the FTC. You can contact them and file a complaint via phone at 1-877-FTC-HELP or online through the FTC Complaint Assistant website.
You can also contact the credit bureaus to ensure that any erroneous information is corrected and your credit score is accurately reported.
It is also important to never pay upfront fees for credit repair services, as most credit repair companies cannot guarantee the results.
How to Stop Receiving Credit Repair Scam Calls in the Future
If you want to stop receiving credit repair scam calls, you can be proactive and get a spam blocker to block calls on your landline. You can download several apps to block spam calls on Android and iPhones. Read on!
The Best Way To Block Credit Repair Spam On Your Landline
Most landline providers do not offer spam-blocking services, leaving you with no option but to block them manually on your phone. Manually blocking spam calls is ineffective because you can block numbers only after receiving the call.
The only effective way to block spam calls is to switch to a provider that blocks them automatically before they reach you.
Community Phone offers landline phone service with built-in spam call blocking that can stop unlawful and unwanted calls from reaching your landline. It allows you to keep your landline phone without tying it to the internet.
Get rid of unwanted calls, and protect yourself, your loved ones, or your business from scams with Community Phone's spam-calling blocking services. Its spam call blocker can automatically detect spam, fraud, or robocalls and stop them before your phone rings.
How does It work?
- When you receive a call to your Community Phone number, your phone won't ring immediately. The caller will hear a recording that asks them to "press 1 to connect."
- Robocalls work by sensing when the recipient picks up the phone and speaks. Once they hear a sound that isn't the sound of the phone ringing, the recording begins.
- Since robocalls don't press buttons, the call will never reach your phone.
- If an "unidentified caller" follows the instructions and your phone rings, you can let the call go to voicemail and respond to the voicemail if it's a legitimate caller.
The Safelist
The Community Phone "Safelist" is a list of numbers you pre-approved to receive calls from. Your phone will ring only to let calls from the pre-approved numbers reach you. It will block all other numbers before your phone rings. You can update this list anytime to add or delete pre-approved numbers.
This feature is handy for seniors who are unsuspecting victims of phone scams. The Community Phone account holder can prevent anyone seniors don't know from reaching them, guaranteeing they'll avoid phone scams.
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The Safelist - 2
This feature lets your phone ring only for numbers pre-approved by you and routes the rest to voicemail. You can access your voicemails and respond to legitimate messages or missed calls. You can update the pre-approved list anytime to add or delete numbers.
The Blocklist
Community Phone guards your landline number against known robocallers, scam calls, and telemarketers by checking each incoming caller's number against a regularly updated database, better known as the blocklist. Their database has over 6 million known spam numbers and is growing daily. You can contribute actively by updating the database with a spam number to protect yourself and other Community Phone members from unwanted calls.
Join Community Phone's waitlist today for first access and receive a free brochure on how this one-of-a-kind spam call-blocking service can help you.
The Best Way to Block Credit Repair Spam on Your iPhone
There are 2 ways to block spam calls on your iPhone
1. The Community Phone Spam Call Blocking App
You can find Community Phone's spam blocker in the Apple Store. Download this free app on your iPhone to block spam calls and text messages. You can also add the spam number to the Community Phone blocklist to update their blocklist. This action can help protect you and other Community Phone members from unwanted calls from that number.
2. Manually Block the Spam Number From Your iPhone
You can block scam calls manually on your iPhone by following these steps:
- Open the Phone App
- Tap > Recent
- Locate the number you want to block
- Tap the info icon
- Scroll to the bottom
- Tap block this caller
- Tap Confirm
The Best Way To Block Credit Repair Spam On Your Android Phone.
You can block scam calls manually on your Android Phone by following these steps:
- Open the Phone App
- Tap more
- Access Call History
- Tap the number/name you want to block
- Tap Block/Report Spam
Benefits of Choosing the Community Phone Spam Blocker
Here are some benefits of choosing the Community Phone spam-blocker services:
1. Built-in Spam Blocker
Traditional landlines do not have in-built spam blockers. If you have a traditional landline, you can manually block spam numbers until you reach a limit. However, you can block the number only after you receive the call, which could be risky in many cases as you may have engaged the scammer.
The Community Phone built-in spam blocker scans, flags, and blocks spam calls before your phone rings, protecting you from scams and fraud.
2. Great Advantage for Seniors
The Safelist can ensure seniors are not troubled by scammers calling from unknown or unidentified numbers. The person who controls the Community Phone user account can pre-approve numbers from which the senior would like to receive calls. The spam blocker service will only allow calls from pre-approved numbers and block all other calls.
3. Take Control of Your Protection
You can update the Safelist or the Allowed list at any time to add or delete numbers. This feature prevents you from engaging scammers and ensures peace and protection against scams and fraud.
4. Effective Where the "Do Not Call" List Fails
The Do Not Call list is not effective against scammers. To prevent scam calls and to protect yourself from fraud, sign up for the Community Phone spam-blocker services for your landline or download their app for iPhone now.
FAQs
What is the best free scam call blocker for the iPhone?
Community Phone’s spam-blocking app on the Apple store is the best free scam call blocker for your iPhone. Block unwanted calls and texts with this free app before your phone alerts you, and protect yourself from scams and fraud.
What is illegal credit repair?
Illegal credit repair is altering your social security to improve your credit rating. You must report to FTC or local authorities if an agency encourages you to change your Social Security Number or get a new one.
Conclusion
Credit repair is not always a scam, but you have to be wary of fake credit repair companies that use false advertising, charge upfront fees and do not deliver on their promises. If you suspect being a victim of a credit repair scam, report it to your local authorities and the FTC.
You can also get the Community Phone spam blocker to stop spam and protect yourself against fraud proactively. Talk to their specialists today to learn how!