A few weeks ago I got a robo call from someone at a company called Cardholder Services. For those of you who don’t know, Cardholder Services is a scam company claiming that they can reduce your interest rates on your credit cards and do an audit.
From there they will ask for your financial information and do an audit which they claim will save you thousands in interest payments. What’s really happening is that they are looking to see just how much credit you really have.
This is when they will typically ask for you to pay a fee of up to $3000 to which is completely bogus for two big reasons.
- Debt Relief Company Upfront Fees are Illegal. That’s right in 2010 laws were set in place that banned debt relief companies from charging upfront fees. In fact these companies are not allowed to charge these fees until they have actually lowered your debt balance with proven results.
- It’ s Illegal to Send Robo Calls Unless You Have the Persons Permission. However, what Cardholder Services tries to do is claim that they are affiliated with your credit card provider which is totally bogus.
On top of that some of the complaints coming from consumers who have been hit by the Cardholder Services Scam, were even charged the fee even when they didn’t even agree to it, but since you gave them your financial info they can pretty much do whatever they want.
To boot Cardholder Services claims to have no risk guarantee that they can get their money back but the truth is few if any have ever gotten their money back from this scam.
Finally, the FTC was receiving nearly 200,000 complaints a month. Late last year in 2012, the FTC was able to shut down 5 of the places supposedly sending out these robo calls but obviously they haven’t got them all yet since I just got a call from them a few weeks ago.
How To Protect Yourself From This Scam
So now that we know this company is a complete scam here are a few things you can do to protect yourself.
- Protect Your Information. First and foremost do not give any of your info out to this company. This would include your social security number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, or anything else for that matter.
- Hang Up. Second, hang up on them. Do not attempt to talk to them this will only invite them to call you again and again.
- Report Them. Finally, report them to the Federal Trade Commission. Anything we can do to get rid of these scammers the better.
So, have you ever been called by the Cardholder Services Scam?
