The answer is "yes". I've seen it time and time again, as I work in a credit based industry. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer has the right to dispute any innacurate trade line on the credit bureaus. This is how it works:
1. Get all three of your bureaus from annualcreditreport.com.
2. Go over all three reports with a highlighter and highlight any trade line that is negative.
3. Make a list of these trade lines and find a reason why they are innaccurate. Mispelled name, wrong balance, wrong date of last activity, account is OVER 7 YEARS OLD, identity theft, etc.
4. Write a handwritten letter to each bureau, listing the items in question and demanding they be deleted, and that you be furnished with an updated credit report. Photocopy each letter and save it. Enclose copies of the credit report with the questionable lines highlighted. Mail these letters certified with return receipt. From this point the bureaus have 30 days to investigate and verify the validity of the lines.
5. Wait 30 days from receipt of initial letters and give it a few days to hear back from them. You will get a letter from each of them with an updated credit report. Guaranteed you will have a bunch of lines deleted simply because they won't have been able to verify the validity of a good number of them. At this point you will have a higher credit score.
6. Any negative lines that remain need to be challenged again with more sophisticated methods.
7. Obtain two or three secured credit cards that report to all three bureaus and begin using them and paying the bill every month on time.
8. Begin making any credit or loan payments that you haven't lost yet on time every month.
Now anybody can conceivably do all of the above on their own. However, many lack the intelligence, the writing skills, diligence and organization to pull it off, hence the need to pay someone else to do it for you.
Anybody who says it can't be done HAS NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. The credit bureaus are not government agencies. They are for profit businesses and their customer service areas are staffed with the same caliber of knuckleheads that Sprint or any other company is. They are largely minority women and easy to get over on.