This morning, on NPR, they interviewed the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. He said one of the IRS's highest priorities is to crack down on scams by supposedly non-profit credit counseling services. He said half of them are currently under audit by the IRS.
He said a typical scam involves a counseling service simply repackaging a person's debt with a for-profit loan company that has close financial ties to the head of the "non-profit."
There used to be legitimate non-profit counselors, largely funded by the credit card industry. However, but their funding got reduced and they can't afford as much advertising as the scammers.
This issue is important because Congress is mandating use of credit counselors in the new bankruptcy bill.
Here's another recent story on the topic from NPR.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4582254