Christian Debt Recovery

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Debt Collection Scams 2010

September 21st, 2011 |

Author: Gavin

Shielded Circle Due Diligence

These days it seems everywhere you look there is some program out there that purports to help people with their excessive debt load and yet the reality is that very few of them actually deliver. In fact, if you Google “credit card debt help” you get over 9 million hits! Obviously, this is a big business but how do you go about determining which programs will really help you and which ones are a complete waste of time and money? The answer of course lies in doing your due diligence on the program before you invest your money.

In my book Financial Integrity for Life (Financial Integrity Institute, 2010), I did extensive research into the various types of programs that are available to help people get out of debt. I looked at everything, including bankruptcy, credit counseling, debt settlement, debt elimination, and debt consolidation. While all have good points and bad points, for the most part they really only made the companies selling them (and yes, that includes attorneys selling bankruptcies) a lot of money and the left the customer with either a lot of debt, bad credit, or both. According to the statistics I uncovered in my research, only a very small percentage of people ever actually got out of debt using these programs – often as little as a two percent success rate.

Then I looked at a totally different concept in debt management called Shielded Circle. This program is unique in that it helps people protect themselves from creditors who are trying to take their money and actually deters collection actions. At first glance this might seem to some to be a scam or some fraudulent way to get out of paying debts, but upon closer inspection it makes a lot of sense. In essence, what the program does is make the customer an unattractive collection prospect so the creditor is more willing to accept a very low settlement offer from the customer. Since the Shielded Circle does not deal directly with the creditors, there is no chance for the customer to lose any money that should go to the creditor. Unlike debt settlement, which is truly one of the biggest scams ever invented, the Shielded Circle never takes one dime of the customer’s money that is going toward the debt. And they have documented proof (right on their web sites) that many customers actually settle their debts for twenty cents on the dollar or less.

It is unfortunate that the word “scam” and “Internet” seem to go hand-in-hand these days. It is easy to set up a web site and make all sorts of claims to try and separate people from their money. One definition of a scam is “obtaining money by means of deception including fake personalities, fake photos, fake template letters, non-existent addresses and phone numbers, and forged documents”. Another is a confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, especially for making a quick profit; swindle”. So with that as a working definition, it should be pretty easy to distinguish between a legitimate business and a scam. Obviously, in the Internet era it is very difficult to sustain a truly fraudulent program for more than a few days, or weeks at most. Simply because anyone who was truly scammed out of their money would blast it all over the Internet through social networking sites and so on. In addition, if a company takes credit cards for their services, only a few people demanding their money back would prevent them from ever taking credit cards again.

When you do your due diligence, be very careful to look at who is saying negative things about a business – is it their customers or their competitors? Do they have facts or just opinions? Have they actually used the product or service themselves? The sad fact is that anyone can say anything they want on anonymous blogs and chat sites without any real proof at all. No one posting on a scam or rip off site is going to help you get out of one cent of your debt or help you restore your credit.

The best advice is to think for yourself and make the best decision you can based on real information, not speculation or outright lies posted by someone who does not even give their real name.

About the Author

Submitted by Patrick Zanders on behalf of Mr. Dennis Daniels. Mr. Daniels is the author of Financial Integrity for Life published by the Financial Integrity Institute and the ebook, Shape up Your Credit Score. He has reviewed www.shieldedcircle.com for this article.