Maria (not her real name) thought she had found the answer to her prayers when she found a TikTok influencer promising to boost her credit score by over 100 points in as little as seven days. She needed a car for work, but her credit score was bad, and she couldn’t get financing.
What she didn’t know was that the influencer was about to embroil her into a fraud scheme by claiming she was a victim of human trafficking.
Maria was just one of thousands who have been caught up in a credit repair scam sweeping social media – “The 7-Day Credit Hack”, and just the latest example of how people are unknowingly being lured into sweeping fraud schemes on social media.
The Birth Of A Human Trafficking Exploit
In 2022, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created a new lifeline for survivors of human trafficking. The rule allowed people to submit proof they were victims of human trafficking to credit bureaus, who would then be required to remove the negative items from the victim’s credit report within four days.
The intention of the rule was noble – help human trafficking survivors rebuild their financial lives after their captors exploited their credit, taking out cards and loans in their name without repaying them.
For victims, providing proof was straightforward. They could provide documentation from a court, an NGO, or a human trafficking task force confirming they were a victim, or they could simply offer a “self-attestation letter.”
It was the letter that scammers honed in on. Virtually anyone could easily create a fake attestation letter and use it as proof of human trafficking. The CFPB even published a template letter that anyone could simply fill out as proof.
“It’s That Easy”
It didn’t take long for credit repair companies and influencers on social media to sniff out the business opportunity with the new CFPB rule. They could charge thousands to help people exploit the system.
By April 2024, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook videos were popping up everywhere, advertising the “New 7-Day Credit Sweep”. People could merely log in to the credit bureaus, dispute all the negative credit items, and upload a self-attestation letter explaining they were victims of sex trafficking.
One influencer says in a popular video, “First, you are going to want to set up an account on TransUnion.com.”
“Then, you will want to include all of the accounts acquired when you were ‘human trafficked’. She emphasizes the words human trafficked by holding up air quotes with her fingers.
“And finally, you will need to upload a victim determination letter. Its that easy.”, she concludes.
The technique apparently worked. Within 4-7 days, people were reporting that their bad credit had vanished, and their credit scores shot up – sometimes by 100 points or more.
And for people that didn’t want to do it, experts were more than willing to do the sweep for a price. For a payment between $1,000 to $2,000 they would sweep the credit for them.
One person that watched the it emerge and warned people to avoid it – The Credit Plug- reported the scheme on his YouTube Channel and advised people to “leave it alone”.
“As anyone knows these types of situations are 100% being abused right now,” he says, “where people who may not necessarily have been a victim or survivor are using this loophole to get things wiped off of their credit report.”
A Spike In CFPB Complaints And Credit Sweep Red Flags
Social media wasn’t the only place lit up with red flags that something was amiss. Signs were also showing up in industry reporting.
First, there was CFPB’s own reporting that showed a spike in complaints submitted by consumers through their portal – a 285% increase from 2023 to 2024, after the new rule went effect.
Credit repair companies will often file complaints with the CFPB on behalf of consumers while they perform these credit sweeps.
Point Predictive tracked a suspicious spike in “credit washing” during the social media hack last year. Credit washing is the finance industry’s term for any activity where borrowers fraudulently remove bad debt through false identity theft or trafficking reports.
The analysis showed a 161% increase in applicants for auto loans who appeared to have erased their bad credit through credit washing.
Those credit washers can result in big losses to financial institutions. In 2023, Sentilink found that the losses to the credit card industry alone from credit washing was more than $297 million.
The Warning Signs Of Fraud Were There All Along
It wasn’t like the CFPB wasn’t warned that the rule would be exploited. The American Bankers Association predicted it would most certainly happen. In a letter to the CFPB dated May 9th, 2022, months before the rule went into place, they wrote that it would encourage criminal activity.
“The ease of blocking accurate information by submitting to a governmental entity a form in which the person self-identifies as a victim will allow and encourage people who are not victims of trafficking- including criminals-to block accurate negative information in their consumer reports, introducing the risk of widespread inaccuracies in consumer reports.”
And they weren’t the only ones raising the red flag. Other industry groups including the American Financial Service Association (AFSA) argued people would use attestation as a way to remove accurate information from their credit reports.
Avoiding The Credit Sweep Con
It’s a cruel irony that a rule designed to help society’s most vulnerable victims has become a weapon for criminals who want to exploit it. And that hurts survivors more than anyone else. Many will face a “cry wolf” effect as the system becomes more skeptical of all claims, forcing them to prove their claims with even more documentation and proof.
Consumers should be wary of credit sweeps on social media and following some practical advice.
#1 – If Its Too Good To Be True, It Could Be Illegal
When someone promises to wipe your credit clean in less than seven days for $1,500 thats not a miracle, its likely just plain old fraud.
And while it may seem like an easy and painless process, they could be filing fraudulent documentation or claims in your name that could be tied back to you in the future.
#2 – Be Cautious Of Credit Sweeps On Social Media
Honest credit repair does exist, but it can take weeks and involves careful attention to finding actual errors on your credit report and removing them through a legitimate process.
And be cautious of any credit sweep that promises to remove “all of your bad credit” including legitimate items you are responsible for.
#3 – Research Any Company Before Paying Upfront
Before working with a credit repair company, check their online reviews as well as any complaints that they have with the Better Business Bureau.
Legitimate credit repair companies don’t guarantee unrealistic results or demand large payments before doing any work. Those are high pressure tactics that should be considered a red flag.
They will also not ask you to sign false affidavits claiming you are a victim of identity theft or human trafficking. Remember, those documents are official records that are often retained and can be used against you later if they suspect fraud, which unfortunately is increasingly common now.
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