People with bad credit can rent access to good credit trade lines by paying to have their names added to credit cards whose primary holders have stellar credit ratings, high limits, and perfect payment histories.

The companies that handle the transactions claim that it will cause FICO scores to increase when the credit reporting agencies add the credit card information to the credit purchaser’s credit report.

Although it appears to be primarily a mortgage fraud issue for borrowers with poor credit history, the same scam can be used to fool any vendor who sells based on credit scores.

In other words, don’t take FICO scores at face value. They can be rigged by the person with whom you’re doing business.

Hat tip to Kenneth R. Harney at the Washington Post.

About the Author

With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 14 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young shows entrepreneurs how to protect and grow their businesses online. He's the author of Internet Marketing Legal Secrets Revealed. Not just a lawyer who focuses exclusively on Internet and marketing law, Mike’s been working with computers for more than 27 years (his first computer was an Atari 400 with 8 KiB RAM) and started representing Internet businesses back in 1996.