Creative financing and down payment assistance

[Brandon Pelfrey]

(Disclaimer: I'm definitely anewbie, so sorry if this question is elementary) I've done some reading about using creative financing, however I recently spoke with a loan officer about different ways that I could get a specific deal financed and her told me that it is illegal to get any financial assistance for your down payment (i.e. if you're going to get a mortgage on a property 100% of the down payment has to be your own money that got earned and cannot be money that was gifted or borrowed). Can anyone validate this? And what are some ways you have used creative financing to get a deal done?