ATLANTA — They promise help with debt from credit cards and other bills. Some of these companies are actively calling and emailing people in need of help. And that is one of the first red flags.
There are real, legitimate debt relief companies. But there has also been a rise in complaints about companies pretending to help.
Some schemers are instead pocketing your money and not paying off the debts.
Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray said can be hard to tell the crooks from legitimate debt relief companies.
“They’re so realistic. It feels like such a real company. So like how are you supposed to know the difference?” Allie Hiatt said.
The difference between fake debt relief companies and people who really want to help, Hiatt’s family member learned the hard way that it’s difficult to spot.
“They paid the money to the company to pay down the debts and consolidate them. And then that money was just never paid. It was taken, and then debts went into collections,” she said.
Channel 2 Investigates checked Federal Trade Commission data. There are more complaints about this from Georgia in 2025 than any other state in the country.
Hiatt’s family member thought a debt relief company was consolidating their debt.
But the money was never paid to the creditors.
“Now you’re in collections and that literally makes your situation worse because you didn’t want to do that. That was the whole point of consolidating,” Hiatt said.
“We’re seeing more and more sort of those bad players out there that are telling folks that they’re going to help them clean their credit or remove things on their credit,” said Tara Alderete of Money Management International, a legitimate nonprofit that helps consumers get out of debt.
She says legit debt relief companies won’t solicit you and won’t ask for big upfront payments.
“If somebody reaches out to you and says, ‘Hey, I can offer you some debt relief,’ you want to be careful of that,” Alderete said.
This year federal regulators at the FTC went after seven companies they say collected more than $100 million from consumers in fake debt consolidation schemes.
According to the complaint, “After paying thousands of dollars in illegal advance fees, consumers experience no significant reduction in their unsecured debts but instead often find themselves deeper in debt and with worsened credit scores.”
Hiatt says she was afraid to seek help with her credit card debt after what she witnessed.
“I was very, very hesitant to do this,” she said.
But Money Management International was able to consolidate two of her sky-high interest rate credit cards into a manageable monthly payment with a very low interest rate.
“Now I’m actually seeing it going down. I’m seeing the progress of it. I’m like, OK, OK. It feels way more manageable,” she said.
In many cases credit card companies and banks will work with you on payment plans and debt relief plans.
And there are real companies out there that specialize in this that can help.
You just have to be careful and do your research.
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