You may have noticed the proliferation of ads by debt consolidation companies in recent years. This is becoming a bigger and bigger business, and now all you see is pop-up ads on the computer, or TV ads that try to convince you to use their services. Not all of these big advertisers are completely legitimate; a number of them are being sued by State Attorneys General, the Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service. That is because they have falsely called themselves “non-profit” when they are, indeed, making a very nice profit.
There is one debt consolidation company that is being sued by no less than the federal government, the FTC, and five different states. To avoid these lawsuits, the company has simply declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In reality, however, they are still very much in business, but working under different business names. This is just an example of how these disreputable companies are willing to operate.
The negative press associated with these companies, who called themselves debt consolidation companies have made the name of this industry very unattractive. Many companies now call themselves “debt...