Under a federal court order entered on May 29, a home-buying consulting business that offers credit repair and home-buying consulting services will pay $10,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges, including illegally charging an advance fee for credit repair and falsely claiming that it can remove negative information from consumers’ credit reports, even if the information is accurate and timely. Home Buyers Consulting Network, Inc. d/b/a Home Buyers Network, Good Credit Company, GoodCredit.com, and 0downhomebuyers.com, and Douglas Andersen Moore a/k/a Douglas A. Moore are barred from further violations of the Credit Repair Organizations Act and the FTC Act. The order contains a $573,000 civil penalty that will be suspended, and, for consumer restitution, a $40,000 judgment that will be suspended upon payment of $10,000. The full civil penalty and judgment amounts will be imposed if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.
At the Commission’s request, the U.S. Department of Justice filed the FTC’s complaint and proposed settlement in federal court. The order was entered in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, click http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.shtm or call 1-877-382-4357. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,600 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. For free information on a variety of consumer topics, click http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm.
(HomeBuyersNetwork)
(FTC File No. 0623231)