As a result of a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit, the operators of “The Credit Game,” a credit repair scheme that cost consumers millions of dollars, face a lifetime ban from the credit repair industry in proposed court orders filed today.
Michael and Valerie Rando and their companies, first sued by the FTC in May 2022, would also be required to turn over a wide array of property that would be liquidated and used to provide refunds to consumers harmed by the scam.
“These defendants falsely promised consumers improved credit based on tactics that were both illegal and ineffective,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Our proposed orders will permanently ban these fraudsters from peddling deceptive credit repair tactics to struggling consumers.”
In its complaint against the Randos and their companies, the FTC alleged that the scheme’s operators provided false information to credit reporting agencies regarding consumers’ credit reports. Additionally, the Randos perpetuated the harm to consumers by pitching their customers a supposed business opportunity to create their own bogus credit repair scheme. The complaint also alleged that the scammers encouraged consumers to pay for the bogus services using COVID-19 tax relief funds, which the FTC alleged was a violation of the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act.
The proposed court orders, which were agreed to by the defendants in the case, include a number of…
