The growing prevalence of identity theft and increased concern about good financial health has led many consumers to seek copies of their credit reports online. Doing so is certainly laudable; the more you know about how potential creditors and lenders see you, the more prepared you can be when it comes time to apply for a loan or credit. An added bonus is that consumers can obtain one copy of their credit report from each of the three main credit bureaus once a year through the official Web site set up for such purposes at AnnualCreditReport.com.
Unfortunately, there are still many Web sites that exist for the sole purpose of tricking consumers who are seeking copies of their free reports. A quick Google search for the term “free credit report” today turned up no fewer than twenty four million sites in the search results. There certainly are not twenty four million Web sites that are going to provide copies of credit reports for free, so what is this all about?
It’s about money. Aside from the “official” site, the others are there to profit, and they can profit in one of two different ways:
Sell you something – Some...