Credit Collections Defense Network
Recently, West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw, won a victory for consumers against Credit Collections Defense Network (CCDN). The judgment was granted against CCDN, Robert Lock Jr. and Phillip Manger and bars them from doing business in the state. In addition to the permanent injunction, the court also imposed a $130,000 civil penalty against each defendant as well as $21,985 in restitution for West Virginia consumers who paid CCDN but received no meaningful service.
A quick google search for “CCDN” will tell consumers all they need to know to stay a mile away from these guys. The first page of google is littered with horror stories of past clients. In fact, someone actually created CCDNLaw.com which is a site devoted to the CCDN scam and comically, it actually outranks the CCDN main site when you search for the company.
Their main pitch is to just send them a few thousand dollars in upfront fees and they will be able to make your debt go away. It might be a plausible theory and may sound like a great solution, but many consumers have found out the hard way, that the only thing consistent about Credit Collections Defense Network is the upfront fees and certainly not the results.
This might be good news for West Virginians. But isn’t this bad news for the next state these guys have their eye on for doing business? These guys look like they’re just going to move on to the next state and create another website, anyway (unless they’re banned from doing business altogether)…
Hello Sonny,
Yes, what you say is true, but by taking this action in West Virginia it will serve as a warning to consumers in other states to stay away from Credit Collections Defense Network. So while it would be great if every state that had a large number of consumer complaints against these guys, would take similar action, this is at least a stepping stone.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and share your thoughts.
Thank you for warning me of the Credit Collections Defense Network scam. It really helped
You are welcome Lance. These guys at Credit Collections Defense Network are a real piece of work. The reality is that their program is much more likely to get you sued by your creditor than it is to help you. These days creditors are on to this kind of stuff and tend to go after consumers that try and protest the debt.
In fact, the creditors will typically label you as a “monetary protester” if you do anything like this and they tend to go after “monetary protesters” with vigor.
The CCDN has been out of business since 2009. So your news is about 2 years late.
Actually the judgment that this story mentions was issued in March of 2011, the same month I wrote the post. So the news I am reporting is very timely.
As far as them being out of business, I say good.
However their website is still up and running and I would ask why?
If “CCDN” is no longer doing business then my guess would be that the leads generated from their site are being used in some way by the people who ran CCDN.
So until their site is down and they are no longer soliciting consumers I will continue to report on their actions.
As far as “who really cares” I would say all of the people that got ripped off for thousands of dollars, and any potential new victims. I have a feeling they care.
Scams like these are major problems for those trying to clear up their debts before or after divorce. Thank goodness there is one less to worry about.