Faulkner's testimony concerned the CROA aspects of the hearing only. It addressed both the vile practices of credit repair doctors and also the interminable, ongoing efforts by the credit bureaus themselves to exempt their actions from CROA (previous post), which regulates the credit repair doctor practices. Credit repair doctors are ripoff artists who make a living claiming that they can fix accurate, but negative, credit report items. Unfortunately, the main reason that CROA was before the committee was only that the credit bureaus seek a self-serving exemption from the act. Why? Because their own deceptive advertising of over-priced ($12-15/month), next-to-useless (don't stop identity theft, only the security freeze can do that) credit monitoring services has gotten them caught up in class action lawsuits for violating the CROA themselves. But, after strong testimony from Faulkner, and opposition to the current industry proposal from the FTC witness, Lydia Parnes, the director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, we doubt the committee or the Congress will move forward. Although we aren't directly signed onto their testimony, we also strongly support the views of Iowa Assistant Attorney General Steve St. Clair and AARP board member Richard Johnson, who both testified on deceptive telemarketing ripoffs primarily aimed at the elderly (previous post describing how banks aid and abet fraudsters directly debiting consumer accounts).