What are free credit score scams?  It can be very enticing to get a free credit score online, and now it’s easier than ever with hundreds of new sites popping up every week. Unfortunately, the few dollars saved on getting a free report could end up costing consumers thousands in the long run. While some of the sites may be legitimate, there are many where customers can end up paying a lot for a “free” score through scams and fraud.

One company that was caught,  One Technologies LP and two others had to settle for $22 million with the FTC for billing customers for a monthly credit monitoring product they didn’t sign up for. This happened with over 50 free credit score websites, including FreeScore360.com, FreeScoreOnline.com, and ScoreSense.com.

In this instance, the companies would ask for a credit card number to verify customers’ identities, but then would actually charge them $29.95 a month for credit monitoring. To make matters worse, these victims had to make repeated calls to cancel the program and had immense difficulty dropping the charges. In the end, more than 200,000 customers complained to their banks, credit card companies, law enforcement agencies, and the Better Business Bureau.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a one-time case of trouble with free credit scores, and some sites even can lead to ID theft. Be careful when signing up for free credit reports, credit monitoring, or credit scores.