Misleading websites targeting customers in debt are the subject of a new OFT crackdown.
Moves by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to outlaw websites from financial management firms posing as reputable debt charities have been welcomed by consumer group Which?
The agency issued orders yesterday to 13 such firms, obliging them to shut a total of 27 sites down. Commonly, the companies produced web content suggesting professional affiliations to charities such as Citizens Advice and National Debtline, or even the government itself.
In this way, customers were targeted to generate business for the firms' own financial management services, which would then be used for private gain. The OFT said that failure to shut the sites would result in prosecution.
Doug Taylor, personal finance campaigns manager at Which?, commented: "These companies are little more than wolves in sheep's clothing. It's great to see the OFT taking a firm line with these websites, but we want to see them go further by naming and shaming the offending companies.
"People struggling with debt need independent advice they can trust. There are several good agencies where consumers can get free and professional advice and it is highly cynical of these private companies to try to cash in on that by posing as something they are not."
Figures released earlier this month by charity Credit Action showed that the total personal debt held by UK consumers rose to £1.46 billion at the end of January 2009. Each household was found to hold £60,000 of this total, mortgages included.
