In today's article in the NY Times, they talk about the IRS cracking down on not-for-profit credit counseling services. I'm pretty happy about this because it's always bothered me that people blindly trust these companies are ethical and on the consumer's side - when in truth, they can be just as deceptive as the creditors. The article is located at: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/14/business/14CRED.html?th Short caption: The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the business practices of nonprofit credit counseling services, which advise millions of people in debt. The investigation could jeopardize the agencies' nonprofit status and upend the industry just as a proposed change in federal bankruptcy law stands to steer many thousands more people to debt counseling. As nonprofit concerns, the agencies are now exempt from dozens of state and federal regulations. The I.R.S., the Federal Trade Commission and state regulators plan to issue an unusual joint advisory today warning consumers to be wary about the total costs when seeking help from tax-exempt credit counseling organizations. "Consumers need to know not to read too much into not-for-profit status â?? that's no guarantee that someone is legit," said C. Steven Baker, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Midwest operations. "A lot of these credit counseling companies are using tax-exempt status as a get-out-of-regulation-free card. That's why we're teaming up with the I.R.S. on this issue." See the NYT for the remainder (I don't want to create any copyright issues ;-).
A Debt Counseling Outfit is merely a collection agency. They collect for the OC for a commission. Also as long as you atribute a copyrighted article, and use it strictly for education purposes, there is no Copyright Issue. Thanks for the article.
