A federal court in Houston, Texas, has placed restrictions on the operator of a credit repair company who allegedly made false claims online.
In an announcement issued Monday, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said the court had entered a permanent injunction barring Turbo Solutions Inc, which does business as Alex Miller Credit Repair, and its 42-year-old CEO Alexander Miller from representing that it can repair or improve consumers’ credit scores.
The court also entered a preliminary injunction prohibiting the defendants from making large or non-essential expenditures to preserve assets for consumer redress.
A civil complaint filed March 1 and unsealed on March 14 accuses Miller of Missouri City, Texas, and his company of violating the Credit Repair Organizations Act, the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, the FTC Act and the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule.
The complaint alleges that Miller and his company used websites and telemarketing to untruthfully claim that they could better consumers’ credit scores by erasing all negative entries from consumers’ credit reports and adding credit-building products.
As alleged in the complaint, the defendants also filed or caused to be filed fake identity theft reports with the FTC.
“IdentityTheft.gov is a resource for consumers, not scammers,” said director Samuel Levine of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Those who abuse this resource by filing fake reports can expect to hear from us.”
Miller and his company are further accused of routinely collecting prohibited advanced fees for their credit repair services and not making the required disclosures regarding those services.
According to the complaint, many consumers paid the defendants a fee ranging from several hundred dollars to $1500 but did not receive the higher credit scores which the defendants promised.
“Credit repair scams affect consumers who already are suffering from low credit scores,” said principal deputy assistant attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice will use all tools at its disposal to stop credit repair agencies from engaging in unlawful conduct targeting financially vulnerable consumers.”