Feds Say Bogus Debt-Relief Operation Just Left Consumers Deeper In Debt – Consumerist

Being elbows-deep in debt is a scary thing, so when a service tells you that you can “become debt free and enjoy financial independence” and that it can reduce how much you owe by “70 to 80 percent on average including all fees,” it might be tempting to give it a shot. But don’t be shocked when you end up scammed out of whatever money you have.

The Federal Trade Commission has charged California-based DebtPro 123 with deceiving customers in paying upwards of $10,000 for debt-relief services that promised to provide legal advice, settle debts, and repair credit, but mostly just left debtors in even worse financial shape than when they started.

According to the FTC’s complaint [PDF], the defendants would require that customers who signed on to the program give them access to directly debit their bank accounts. The company would then take out its fee of up to 20% of a customer’s total debt owed.

“Defendants collected their fees as a portion of the monthly payments, front-loading the fees,” reads the complaint. “For many consumers, more than half of their monthly payment went towards Defendants’ fees. For consumers who were in the program longer than eighteen months, Defendants also charged a $49 monthly
‘maintenance fee.’”

Feds Say Bogus Debt-Relief Operation Just Left Consumers Deeper In Debt – Consumerist

Social Security, Treasury target taxpayers for their parents’ decades-old debts - The Washington Post

A few weeks ago, with no notice, the U.S. government intercepted Mary Grice’s tax refunds from both the IRS and the state of Maryland. Grice had no idea that Uncle Sam had seized her money until some days later, when she got a letter saying that her refund had gone to satisfy an old debt to the government — a very old debt.

When Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them.

Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it’s not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary’s money, rather than her surviving siblings’, is a mystery.

[,,,]
The Treasury Department has intercepted $1.9 billion in tax refunds already this year — $75 million of that on debts delinquent for more than 10 years, said Jeffrey Schramek, assistant commissioner of the department’s debt management service. The aggressive effort to collect old debts started three years ago — the result of a single sentence tucked into the farm bill lifting the 10-year statute of limitations on old debts to Uncle Sam.

[,,,]
Grice filed suit against the Social Security Administration in federal court in Greenbelt this week, alleging that the government violated her right to due process by holding her responsible for a $2,996 debt supposedly incurred under her father’s Social Security number.

Social Security officials told Grice that six people — Grice, her four siblings and her father’s first wife, whom she never knew — had received benefits under her father’s account. The government doesn’t look into exactly who got the overpayment; the policy is to seek compensation from the oldest sibling and work down through the family until the debt is paid.

Social Security, Treasury target taxpayers for their parents’ decades-old debts - The Washington Post

Debt Ceiling Deadline - The Colbert Report - 2013-08-10 - Video Clip | Comedy Central

I take it Mr Yoho this is how you run your household: "If America defaults on its debt, President Obama will just have to pick which programs get funded." Can we say clueless,,,

Will the real comedian please stand up. No Mr Colbert, not you!!

Debt Ceiling Deadline - The Colbert Report - 2013-08-10 - Video Clip | Comedy Central