I've wondered how debt settlement outfits find struggling consumers to target.

It's illegal for credit bureaus to sell your private information, except when you are applying for a loan, for companies you already have an account with, or to someone making a "firm offer of credit."

The Wall Street Journal reports today that scammers mail out offers of debt consolidation loans, as bait, and then switch to selling debt settlement programs when you call.

Of course these debt settlement programs rarely work. The big credit cards ending up suing, while you are settling the smaller ones, and paying the "resolution" fees.

A spokesman for that debt settlement industry told the Wall street Journal, "the only real alternative many of these consumers have to debt-settlement is bankruptcy."

The difference, of course, is for most people bankruptcy works.