The UK s advertising watchdog has banned the adverts of two unregulated lead generators after they were found to have mimicked legitimate debt charities and claimed to be endorsed by the Government.
The websites writeoffmydebt and stepdebtsupport were criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority after a series of complaints by the Government-funded Money and Pensions Service, all of which were upheld.
The ASA declared that the companies behind the websites and online adverts, Stockport-based Fidelitas Group and Burnley-based National Direct Service, had misled visitors to their sites through adverts on search engines by making them think they were dealing with authorised debt counsellors or government-endorsed services.