Credit Repair Business

Hasic initiates legal action against credit repair companies

The ASIC Company announces that it has taken action against Malouf Group Enterprises Pty Ltd (Malouf Group), a Gold Coast credit repair business, and its principal Jordan Francis Malouf. The ASIC claims that, between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2015, the Malouf Group made incorrect or deceptive statements and acted outrageously in the operations of its credit repair business, inter alia by assuring customers that the Malouf Group could delete adverse lists from its credit database, although often nothing could be done about the lists.

In some cases ASIC also claims that there was indeed nothing incorrect with the consumer's credit record. The Malouf Group typically billed its customers a $1,095 charge for its service. The ASIC seeks: statements that the Malouf Group has made spurious or fraudulent statements and has acted in a spurious or fraudulent and impertinent manner; statements that Mr Malouf was aware of the Malouf Group's violations; statements that Mr Malouf was worried about; statements that the Malouf Group and Mr Malouf should not continue to make spurious or fraudulent statements; penalties; statements that oblige the Malouf Group to implement implementation of Malouf Code of Ethics and Code of Ethics and to issue correctional notifications.

ASIC shall be granted roles and responsibilities by the Delegations in accordance with the 2010 Competition and Consumer Protection Act to govern behaviour with regard to credit repair and recovery (including the initiation of execution proceedings). The Malouf Group operates under various business brands, such as Credit Wash, Credit Clean Australia, Credit Fix Australia and Clean Your Credit. Part IIIA of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) governs the gathering and disclosure of consumer credit history information.

The consumer can try to have credit default and other credit violations "negative lists" deleted if the list is wrong or does not meet the data protection law requirement. For more information on credit repair, customers should consult ASIC's MoneySmart website: Credit Repair.