Terrible Advice/Signs of the Times

I have noticed a few of these signs on Nostrand over the past few days. Terrible advice, but I think a sign of the times.

 

I can't zoom in, is this a

"instant cash for your home"

or a

"I can help you get a second mortgage"

sign?

It is even worse. It starts out with "increase your FICO score by getting seasoned trade lines." Okay, fine. And then:

"I can purchase one of these shelf corporations with a multi-layer history and a great credit rating that I can use to get a loan from a bank. Some bankers might look closely at the shelf corporations, small business owners are advised to request loans of $150,000 or less. That's about the threshold where banks check credit scores but don't always investigate further. If large banks did investigations on every $150,000 business loan they make they'd have to add whole new departments.

Frankly, thats not worth it because they don't make or lose that much money one these smaller loans anyway. Is this practice illegal? Our conclusion was that it is clearly not. I understand that small business owners are strapped for cash and unable to get loans, but if you do not want to close your doors and you ned help this could be your knight in shiny armor."

This sign is basically telling people that their service is helping them commit serious fraud! And JUSTIFYING it! Anyone who takes this advice is in danger of being both the victim of fraud and punished by the law for committing it. OY.

The sign seems to forget the part about how even if you successfully trick a bank into giving you a loan, you still:

1.  Just taken out a loan in your name.

2.  Have committed fraud

3.  Don't have the $ to pay back said loan because the person who showed you how to do it took a chunk as their fee.

....preying on people who desperately need money isn't hard. 

Not hard, but pretty despicable. If I see anyone in the act of posting one of these, I may have to clock'em.

The most effective of these scams seem to appeal to the readers' negative feelings toward banks.

They make the reader believe that they are being unfairly denied loans as a result of their low FICO score, and/or that they have a low score as a result of things that were beyond their control (bad marriage, medical bills, unjustly fired from job, etc).

This gives the reader the belief that they would be pursuing "justice" (not fraud).

I DOUBT that this "service" has the intention of actually helping to obtain these dubious loans. Most like they'll just take their mark for high "fees" or "service charges" and vanish.