Business Opportunities Scams
These offers make it sound like it is very easy to start a business that will earn piles of money without much work, selling or cash. Many of these “opportunities” are actually illegal pyramid schemes or frauds that are masquerading as legitimate opportunities to earn money.
Work-At-Home-Schemes
The most common work-at-home scam promises that you’ll earn money for stuffing envelopes. For example, you’re promised you’ll earn $2.00 for every envelope you stuff. In fact, there never is any real envelope stuffing employment available. Instead, you pay to register and then you’re instructed to send the same envelope-stuffing ad via bulk e mail to others. The only money you can earn would come from others who fall for the scam and pay to register. Finally, if you did actually do work for one of these outfits (for example, some promise to pay you for craft work), they’d refuse to pay you and say your work didn’t measure up to their “quality standards.”
Free Goods
These offers promise expensive items such as computers… for free. They ask you to pay a fee to join, and then you have to bring in a certain number of other members. Many of these scams are just disguised pyramid schemes.
Guaranteed Loans or Credit Scams
There are lots of variants of this scam: home equity loans that don’t require any equity in your home, loans regardless of your credit history, offshore bank loans, credit cards regardless of your credit history, etc. Sometimes these offers are combined with pyramid schemes that offer to pay you for attracting other participants to the scheme. However, they are scams – the loans don’t come through, you are turned down unless you meet stringent requirements, or the credit cards simply don’t arrive.
Credit Repair Scams
These scams promise to erase accurate negative information from your credit file so that you can now qualify for loans, mortgages, or credit cards. The promoters of these scams cannot deliver. Further, if you follow their advice and lie on a loan or credit application, misrepresent your Social Security number, or get an Employer Identification number from the Internal Revenue Service under false pretenses, you will be committing fraud and violating federal laws. Don’t fall for this scam.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Further, don’t buy anything via bulk e-mail (spam). Your chances of being scammed are astronomical.