Western Citizen

Hard Times: Profiteering by phone pole

Drive through most any city in America and the offers will leap out at you: "Repair Your Credit!" "Modify Your Loan!" "Sell Your House Quick!" The creators of these signs -- Hard Times Profiteers, as we at the Huffington Post Investigative Fund have dubbed them -- are moving to capitalize on the financial troubles of others. They are posting advertisements on walls, street lamps and bus shelters. The ads range from handwritten cardboard cutouts to printed plastic signs.