Aye, let me give you the full picture on this. The Federal Trade Commission just announced it's sending 443,048 refund checks totaling more than $10.9 million to people who got played by a company called Financial Education Services — also known as FES, United Wealth Education, United Credit Education Services, and Youth Financial Literacy Foundation. If you paid any of those companies between May 2019 and May 2022, check your mail. There may be a check with your name on it.
Now here's the real story — and why this matters to everyone in the credit space.
FES built their entire operation on two lies. Lie number one: they told people with low credit scores they could clean up their credit fast. Easy fix, guaranteed results. They charged upfront fees for these services — which is illegal under federal law. The Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) specifically bans charging before results are delivered. They did it anyway, for years.
Lie number two: they recruited those same victims into a pyramid scheme. The pitch was that you could make serious money selling FES credit repair packages to other people — or recruiting new agents. That's the same playbook every MLM in history has used. The people at the top got paid. Everyone else lost money trying to recruit others who would also lose money.
By the time the FTC shut them down in 2022, FES had bilked more than $213 million from consumers. The $10.9 million being refunded right now is what was left to claw back after the legal process ran its course. That works out to about 5 cents back for every dollar stolen. The average check is roughly $25.
If you paid FES, United Wealth Education, United Credit Education Services, or Youth Financial Literacy Foundation between May 2019 and May 2022: Check your mailbox. Cash any check within 90 days — it says the deadline on the check. Questions? Contact the FTC's refund administrator: Analytics, at 1-833-699-7995.
The credit repair industry attracts predators because desperate people are easy targets. You've got a 520 and you just got denied for an apartment. You're scared. You need this fixed now. And someone slides into your DMs promising they can wipe your credit clean in 30 days for $299 upfront. That's the trap.
Here's what you need to know to protect yourself. Real, legitimate credit repair takes time. There is no magic delete button. What a legitimate service can do is help you identify errors on your report, dispute inaccurate information, build positive payment history, and build a strategy for what's genuinely removable versus what has to age off naturally.
What a scam operation does is charge you upfront, send mass template letters that bureaus largely ignore, and move on to the next victim. Some will even offer you a new credit identity using a CPN (Credit Privacy Number) — that is federal identity fraud that can put you in prison. Don't touch it.
Run if they: Charge any upfront fees before delivering results. Guarantee a specific score increase. Promise to remove accurate negative items. Tell you to dispute everything regardless of accuracy. Offer a new SSN or CPN. Recruit you to sell the same service to others.
Stay if they: Explain what's disputable and what isn't. Show you the process before charging. Work under a signed contract. Give you a 3-day right to cancel (required by CROA). Have real, verifiable reviews from actual clients.
Say man — I built ScoreBoostByNMD specifically because of stories like this. There's a massive gap between people who need credit help and legitimate resources they can actually trust and afford. That's the gap I fill.
The FES case closed. The FTC won. 443,000 people got a small check for a massive betrayal. But the next operation is already running somewhere — same pitch, different name. Don't let it be you.
Stay locked in — Za | NMD ZAZA 🐐