CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two months after regulators busted Equifax and TransUnion for misrepresenting credit scores they sell to consumers, Experian is now in trouble too.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered Experian to pay a civil penalty of $3 million and ordered Experian and its subsidiaries to stop lying about the credit scores they peddle to consumers.

For years, Experian has been "deceiving consumers," the CFPB said, by falsely claiming the credit scores it markets and sells to consumers are the same ones used by banks and other creditors to making lending decisions.

"In fact, lenders did not use Experian's scores to make those decisions," the CFPB said.

When a bank is considering approving you for a loan or credit card, it checks your credit score through one or more of the three credit bureaus. The bank generally receives your FICO score, using a formula developed by Fair Isaac Corp.

But Experian developed its own credit scoring model, called the PLUS Score, the CFPB said. Experian misrepresented to consumers that their PLUS Score is the same one used by lenders.

"In fact, lenders did not use the scores Experian sold to consumers," the CFPB said. "In some instances, there were significant differences between the PLUS Scores that Experian provided to consumers and the various credit scores lenders actually use. As a result, Experian's credit scores in these instances presented an inaccurate picture of how lenders assessed consumer creditworthiness."

This action comes two months after the CFPB cracked down on TransUnion and Equifax, saying these two credit bureaus also lied to consumers about the credit scores they paid for in years past.

Consumers by law are entitled to free copies of their credit reports, but if they want their credit score too, they must pay, typically around $8 for each bureau they ask for their credit score. It can be a good idea for consumers to learn their credit score, but it can be detrimental if they think they know their credit score but their true credit score is something significantly different.

For starters, FICO scores have a range of 300 to 850. Experian's PLUS scores have a range of 330 to 830. Even more importantly, the formula used to generate the scores is vastly different by placing emphasis on different factors than banks actually care about.

From at least 2012 through 2014, the CFPB said, Experian violated the Dodd-Frank Act by deceiving consumers about the credit scores it sold to them.

Consumer advocates applauded the move.

"This is the latest step among several that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recently taken to protect consumers from abuse by credit reporting agencies; the CFPB is on a roll," National Consumer Law Center staff attorney Chi Chi Wu said in a statement. "American consumers are so much the better off for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's efforts to clean up the credit reporting industry."

At the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Ed Mierzwinski, said: "Again, the CFPB has held a powerful wrongdoer accountable.. . Experian adds insult to injury when first fails to keep your credit report accurate, and then deceptively markets you a second-rate credit score."

"Director Richard Cordray and the CFPB have proven once again that they are the consumer's champion and dismantling or weakening this vital agency would be a disaster for America," said Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG's consumer program director.

Experian has been ordered to:

Pay $3 million into the CFPB's civil penalty fund.

Tell the truth about the credit scores it sells to consumers, and not lie to people by telling them they're the same scores used by lenders.

Adopt a "compliance management system" to make sure its advertising practices comply with the law and with the CFPB's order.

Clean up its compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires the bureaus to provide a free credit report once a year and to use a central source online to provide consumers with access to their credit reports or a way to request them. But when consumers went to

Experian pushed back against the findings. "While we do not believe our practices violated the law and did not admit to any of the allegations," spokesman Greg Young said in a statement, "in the interest of moving our business forward and staying focused on delivering an exceptional product and service experience to our clients and consumers, Experian has accepted the consent order.

"The consent order addresses past products and marketing disclosures and does not reflect current marketing practices," he said. "Experian will execute all actions directed by the CFPB; except for limited changes, our current marketing practices are already compliant with the order."

Young added that, since December 2014, Experian has allowed consumers the ability to obtain their FICO credit scores, which are used by lenders, and no longer is "developing new offers" based on the PLUS Score.

In January, the CFPB aid TransUnion and Equifax also misrepresented that the scores consumers purchased would help them evaluate their own credit standing. In reality, the credit scoring models used by Equifax and TransUnion in these cases aren't even used by banks and other creditors.

Equifax and TransUnion were ordered to pay $17.6 million in restitution to consumers and fines of $5.5 million to the CFPB.

The companies were also criticized by the CFPB for luring people into signing up monthly credit-monitoring or related products that were misrepresented.