People around the world are facing a hard enough time as it is with the current global economy being in such a poor state, but when you are trying to find help to keep your home and vehicles and make ends meet only to be ripped off or mislead you tend to feel at a loss. That is what has happened to numerous people in the United Kingdom over the last few months as they have turned to the Internet and other places to get financial help and advice, then only to discover that the websites they were using were misleading them. Because of reports from consumers to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), thirteen of these websites have been shut down.

According the OFT, these so called debt management companies have been using website URL addresses that were very similar to ones used by legitimate non-profit companies in the United Kingdom in an effort to mislead unsuspecting consumers. The list of thirteen companies and their URLs have not been released by the OFT yet, and consumers are advised to continue reporting any suspicious activity to the OFT if they are using an online debt management service that they feel may not be on the up and up.

Ray Watson, the credit director of the OFT, stated in regard to the situation, "We believe they are misleading consumers by holding themselves out as free advice agencies such as Citizens Advice, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, the Money Advice Trust and Advice UK".

Many of the companies are not following the strict debt management guidelines that have been set out by the OFT, and many of them do not hold a consumer credit license. The license is necessary in the United Kingdom in order for the company to offer debt management advice. The other companies that do hold consumer credit licenses are looking at losing them if they do not comply with the OFT and change their URLs and the way they are conducting business so as to not mislead consumers who are coming to them for help. They must state that they are in no way affiliated with the free advice agencies from the start to keep from misleading unsuspecting consumers.

Consumers who are looking for debt management help and advice through the Internet are advised to be very wary of the websites they are interested in and to use the consumer credit register list that is on the Office of Fair Trading's website to see if the company has been verified by the OFT. If the company is on the consumer credit register, then they can be considered safe and legitimate places to seek out debt counseling and management services.

Teresa Pritchard of the Citizens Advice Bureau was glad to see the thirteen websites shut down by the OFT. She said, "For several years now, we have been getting reports from people approaching the CAB who have been worried about sites and telephone calls they have had from people operating advice sites who have names very similar to ours. This action should mean that we see an end to that".