Just as an illustration of how careful you have to be when it comes to credit repair/credit counseling/etc. on the Internet, after I posted yesterday’s article I also updated the FPU Twitter feed. The update contained the words “credit repair,” because I was stating how many of them were scams.

This morning I had three new followers on Twitter.

Every one of them was from a credit repair scam business. The first one was obvious…every post contained the same URL, they were following a thousand people but had three followers. The second was from a place with a D- rating by the BBB. The third had a big, fat F.

Needless to say, I blocked all three. Then I found a few that I’d missed, hiding out in my list of followers. I’m not allowing these criminals (which is what they essentially are) to follow the FPU on Twitter.

They’re watching Twitter for the words “credit repair” and latching onto anyone who mentions it. Not on my watch.

I may start calling them out by name every couple weeks if it happens enough to annoy me. I’ll just post their Twitter names, their business names, and their ratings from the BBB. And a warning that the Fraud Prevention Unit recommends you do NOT contact these businesses.

If they are contacting you first, it’s a scam. Pure and simple. There are legitimate credit counselors in your area. Do the research if you need their services. You can’t afford not to.