I've been with Everest for over a year with 80K in debt do to medical bills, ID theft, and bad financial mgmt on my part. What I find is this. It seems the credit card companies are the ones that put the dirt out on the internet because they do not want settlements of any type to take place. Hey the Govt bailed them out, we deserve the same. Everest got me a deal with BofA in which I paid 8000 of a 25000 debt. It's true you have to play the game of avoiding collection calls as this merely positions everest to make a better deal for you. In regards to different company names, businesses of all sorts do this all the time as advised by their legal staffs. Mostly do to tax sheltering. Don't look into that as illicit behavior. Everest gets a grade A from me. They try to help their clients, they get a bad rap by those vested against debt collection, plus some within their own industry are scammers, so it's hard to find the real deal. Well Everest is.