Being in debt review is not always easy. If you do not begin to earn more or spend even less, inflation will squeeze even the best laid plans.
Many consumers would rather return to old habits of taking on more debt than make needed adjustments that take them out of their comfort zone.
Sadly, there are many scammers out there who will take advantage of consumers who have already made good progress on paying off their debts.
One popular scam is to offer to get the consumer out of debt review.
Note: to leave debt review your debts need to be paid up (all except a bond). This is due to the wording of the National Credit Act.
Scammers will post on Facebook or even call consumers and offer to get them out of debt review (or have the indication of their debt review as recorded by the credit bureau removed).
‘They ask for fees upfront and make no promises of success’
They ask for fees upfront and make no promises of success. So, even if they are somewhat genuine (most are not) they might take the money, make a few calls to some credit providers asking them to write off the debt and then call back to say: sorry it didn’t totally work out. Bye.
Others will simply offer to help the consumer pay off their debts outside of debt review (which the consumer kinda has to do anyway if they want to ever have that “flag” at the credit bureaus removed). They may then charge other non regulated fees for this so called service.
For those who are in debt review and have been paying regularly, some less scrupulous people who make such promises may simply try transfer the consumer to a different Debt Counsellor.
Total scammers will just take the money and run. Never to be heard from again.
‘scammers will just take the money and run’
Regardless of which version of the scam it is, it will cost the consumer a lot of money and may offer zero help. For those who are active in debt review at the time it could even cost them all their progress made to date (putting their assets at risk).