Everyone’s seen them - seductive work-at-home opportunities hyped in flyers tacked to telephone poles, in newspaper classifieds, in your e-mail, and all over the web, promising you hundreds or thousands of dollars a week for "Ads/E-mail Processing", "Craft Assembly", "Data Entry", "Envelope Stuffing", "List with Clients for Sale", "Make Profit Now", "Marketing Kit", "Medical Billing Service", "Typing at Home", etc. And it’s just a phone call or mouse click away…

Might be tempting during these uncertain economic times, but beware of any offers that promise easy money for minimum effort - many are scams that fill the coffers of criminals.

In a nutshell, you find an ad, which tells you that you could turn your computer into a moneymaking machine (giving you the example of someone who already quit their 9-5 job - More details on this can be found in the "Mom Makes $.../ Day Scam"). They lure victims in by using phrases such as "Make an extra buck", "extra holiday money", "Make money online", or "Make money on the Internet", etc.

Here are a few of the most common work-at-home scams

• Advance-fee
  Starting a home-based business is easy! Just invest a few hundred dollars in inventory, set-up, and training materials, they say. Of course, if and when the materials do come, they are totally worthless…and you’re stuck with the bill.
  
  
• Making a couple of additional bucks doesn't sound any simpler than this:
  Simply pay an in advance, one-time charge (a couple of thousand dollars, maybe) to have somebody fabricate and host a working site highlighting different family unit products available to be purchased, from toothpaste to tissue; every time somebody purchases a thing, you gather a cut of the exchange. You should do nothing more than urge individuals to shop there - the rest (stocking stock, transporting the item) is taken care of for you. On the other hand, more probable, nothing is taken care of, and the criminal offering you the open door is a distant memory with your sincere cash before you've sold one tube of Crest.
  
  
• Driver needed
  This trick, as of late promoted on Craigslist, has numerous varieties. For one situation, a man asks you to chauffer his wife, who is going to your territory. Sufficiently simple, however the installment terms are slightly convoluted. You are informed that you will get a check (or "cash gram") for, say, $2,500 via the post office. You will store the check, then instantly haul out the money - $700 to cover your charge and any subordinate costs, and the rest to be sent back to the trickster. Your bank most likely won't know for a day or two that you have saved a fake check.
  
  
• Counterfeit check-facilitated "mystery shopper"
  You’re sent a hefty check and asked to deposit it into your bank account, then withdraw funds to shop and check out the service of local stores and wire transfer companies. You keep a small amount of the money for your "work", but then, as instructed, mail or wire the rest to your "employer". Sounds good? One problem: the initial check was phony and by the time your bank notifies you, your money is long gone and you’re on the hook for the counterfeit check.
  
  
• The greater part of these telecommute plans guarantee up to a great many dollars for each week for preparing protection claims for specialists who are excessively occupied with, making it impossible to manage the printed material themselves. You'll get startup showcasing materials, programming, an instructional meeting and a "lead" rundown of neighborhood doctors - all for a charge, obviously. Too awful that product costs a considerable measure less, best case scenario Buy, your instructional meetings are put off uncertainly, your leads are vapor and nobody needs your service.
  
  
• This may be the worst one of all
  Customers pay a charge to enroll with the business to get to a pre-screened rundown of "genuine" work-at-home employment postings. The con artist's promotions appear over the span of a "trick free employments at home" online inquiry, and they guarantee a discount to the individuals who neglect to get a vocation. In the wake of sending in installment, casualties are summarily bolted out of their records and never see a solitary opening for work.
  
  
• Pyramid schemes
  You’re hired as a "distributor" and shell out big bucks for promotional materials and product inventories with little value (like get-rich quick pamphlets). You’re promised money for recruiting more distributors, so you talk friends and family into participating. The scheme grows exponentially but then falls apart - the only ones who make a profit are the criminals who started it.
  
  
• Unknowing involvement in criminal activity
  Criminals - often located overseas - sometimes use unwitting victims to advance their operations, steal and launder money, and maintain anonymity. For example, they may "hire" you as a U.S.-based agent to receive and re-ship checks, merchandise, and solicitations to other potential victims…without you realizing it’s all a ruse that leaves no trail back to the crooks.

Add identity theft to the mix. As if these schemes aren’t bad enough, many also lead to identity theft. During the application process, you’re often asked to provide personal information that can be used to steal from your bank account or establish new credit cards in your name.

On the job. A host of law enforcement and regulatory agencies investigate these schemes and track down those responsible. But the most effective weapon against these fraudsters is you not falling for the scams in the first place.

A few tips:

• Contact the Better Business Bureau to determine the legitimacy of the company.
  
  
• Be suspicious when money is required up front for instructions or products.
  
  
• Don’t provide personal information when first interacting with your prospective employer.
  
  
• Do your own research into legitimate work-at-home opportunities, using the "Work-at-Home Sourcebook" and other resources that may be available at your local library.
  
  
• Ask lots of questions of potential employers - legitimate companies will have answers for you!
  
  
• Keep in mind that every successful business is successful because it has happy customers. Try to find those who worked with the company before, but do not use the "company's" own testimonials. That's where everybody falls, as they believe everything without doing research. There are over 1,000 forums on this topic on the Internet.

And if you think you’ve been the victim of a work-at-home scam, file a complaint at your local authorities.

This type of scam may involve an unusual or restrictive diet, revolutionary exercise or "fat-busting" devices, or breakthrough products such as pills, patches or creams.

Who did not read about the magical weight loss products? They get offered with the famous words like:

• Lose 10 kilos in 10 days
• Eat your favorite foods and lose weight
• Shrinks your stomach, waist and hips
• Scientists announced icredible discovery
• Revolutionary Method
• Turn on your body's fat-burning process
• Absorbs fat
• New scientific/medical breakthrough
• Testimonials from famous doctors and "happy" customers with dramatic before and after pictures

You can be sure that there are no magic pills, miracle cures or some safe options for serious medical conditions for rapid weight loss. The only weight you lose is the weight of the money you spent from your purse. There is no other way to lose weight than to eat less and to move more. Some of the offered methods are even very dangerous for your health.

The products are promoted with the use of false claims such as "lose 10 kilos in 10 days" or "lose weight while you sleep", and often require large advance payments or that you enter into a long-term contract to participate in the program.

The top diet scams are:

• Metabolism-boosting pills based on herbal ingredients
  At the highest priority on the rundown of eating regimen tricks are pills taking into account natural fixings that guarantee to support your digestion system and help you blaze calories or fat speedier.
  
  New herbs dependably appear to permeate to the top as potential eating routine guides, as one leaves another shows up in light of the fact that the FDA doesn't screen herbs. The vast majority of time they are simply incapable; on occasion they are perilous.
  
  Two late illustrations of home grown eating regimen pills that got the consideration of the FDA as risky are ephedra and kava (Piper methysticum, otherwise called kava kava).
  
  Up to this point, ephedra was found in numerous home grown dietary supplements for weight reduction, however in February 2004, the FDA banned the offer of ephedra in any dietary supplement in the U.S. because of the danger of disease or damage. The herb is a nearby compound cousin of methamphetamine or speed and can bring about hypertension, sporadic pulse, a sleeping disorder, apprehension, tremors, seizures, heart assaults, strokes, and even passing.
  
  Kava is a plant found in the islands of the South Pacific. Supplements containing the natural fixing are frequently advanced for unwinding and weight reduction. In any case, the FDA issued a notice in 2002 that utilization of supplements containing kava has been connected to serious liver damage.
  
  
• Fat- and carb-blocking pills
  Pills that claim to obstruct your body's ingestion of fat and all the more as of late sugars are likewise usually sold eating regimen tricks. 
  
  Regardless of the possibility that these fat and carb blockers filled in as its been said they do, scientists say the impacts can be risky if not outright unsavory. 
  
  It's similar to making somebody lactose narrow minded. By making the body not able to breakdown supplements in the body, which prompts gastrointestinal issues like loose bowels, bloating, and gas, these pills additionally hinder the retention of the vitamins that go with these supplements.
  
  Why might somebody deliberately submit themselves to that? Some fat blockers may have something in them that can meddle with how individuals assimilate fat, yet they've never been indicated to help with considerable weight reduction.
  
  
• Herbal weight loss teas
  Teas in view of home grown fixings are likewise touted as eating routine guides, however specialists say the primary fixing in large portions of these teas is caffeine, which is a diuretic and prompts water misfortune.
  
  Losing water isn't getting more fit. Caffeine can likewise build metabolic rate by a little sum however insufficient that you would have the capacity to say that it added to weight reduction.
  
  It is the program which is coming along with the teas which results into a weight loss. You have to drink the tea after dinner and you are not allowed to eat anything else until the morning. That way it could curb late-night eating, but it's not necessarily a result of drinking the tea itself.
  
  
• Diet patches, jewelry, or other products worn on the body
  Patches that convey sedates however the skin have get to be famous for helping smokers quit and conveying estrogen to calm menopausal side effects. 
  
  Be that as it may, specialists say no viable weight reduction medications have been intended to be conveyed through the skin by means of patches. More often than not, these patches contain the same inadequate herbs found in dietary supplements or teas.
  
  Additionally included in this eating regimen trick class is adornments, for example, studs or wrist trinkets, intended to be worn on the body with the guarantee to help individuals shed pounds. Any case that individuals can lose even a pound or more a week utilizing these gadgets is false.
  
  
• Body wraps or "slim suits"
  On the off chance that there were an "oldie yet goodie" eating regimen trick prize champ, specialists say it would likely go to body wraps. 
  
  The thick, layered sweat suits once prominent decades back have transformed into silver "thin suits" and fat-softening body wraps intended to secure body warmth and dissolve away the pounds.
  
  Be that as it may, specialists say the main sort of weight reduction brought on by wearing these outfits is water misfortune created by over the top sweating. As soon as you drink, you'll put on all that water weight back.

Nigerian letter frauds combine the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter mailed from Nigeria offers the recipient the “opportunity” to share in a percentage of millions of dollars that the author - a self-proclaimed government official - is trying to transfer illegally out of Nigeria. The recipient is encouraged to send information to the author, such as blank letterhead stationery, bank name and account numbers, and other identifying information using a fax number provided in the letter. Some of these letters have also been received via e-mail through the Internet. The scheme relies on convincing a willing victim, who has demonstrated a “propensity for larceny” by responding to the invitation, to send money to the author of the letter in Nigeria in several installments of increasing amounts for a variety of reasons.

Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are spirited out of Nigeria. In actuality, the millions of dollars do not exist, and the victim eventually ends up with nothing but loss. Once the victim stops sending money, the perpetrators have been known to use the personal information and checks that they received to impersonate the victim, draining bank accounts and credit card balances. While such an invitation impresses most law-abiding citizens as a laughable hoax, millions of dollars in losses are caused by these schemes annually. Some victims have been lured to Nigeria, where they have been imprisoned against their will along with losing large sums of money. The Nigerian government is not sympathetic to victims of these schemes, since the victim actually conspires to remove funds from Nigeria in a manner that is contrary to Nigerian law. The schemes themselves violate section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, hence the label “419 fraud.”

Tips for Avoiding Nigerian Letter or “419” Fraud:

• If you receive a letter from Nigeria asking you to send personal or banking information, do not reply in any manner. Send the letter to your local authorities.
  
  
• If you know someone who is corresponding in one of these schemes, encourage that person to contact the local authorities as soon as possible.
  
  
• Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.
  
  
• Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.
  
  
• Guard your account information carefully.

Advance fee fraud gets its name from the fact that an investor is asked to pay a fee up front or in advance of receiving any proceeds, money, stock or warrants in order for the deal to go through.  The fee may be in the form of a commission, regulatory fee or tax, or some other incidental expense. These secondary "advance fee" schemes work very similarly to boiler room operations, the difference being that an advance fee scheme generally targets investors who already purchased underperforming securities, perhaps through an affiliated boiler room, offering to arrange a lucrative sale of those securities, but first requiring the payment of an “advance fee.”

With other words an advance fee scheme occurs when the victim pays money to someone in anticipation of receiving something of greater value - such as a loan, contract, investment, or gift - and then receives little or nothing in return.

The variety of advance fee schemes is limited only by the imagination of the con artists who offer them. They may involve the sale of products or services, the offering of investments, lottery winnings, “found money,” or many other “opportunities.” Clever con artists will offer to find financing arrangements for their clients who pay a “finder’s fee” in advance. They require their clients to sign contracts in which they agree to pay the fee when they are introduced to the financing source. Victims often learn that they are ineligible for financing only after they have paid the “finder” according to the contract. Such agreements may be legal unless it can be shown that the “finder” never had the intention or the ability to provide financing for the victims.

Tips for Avoiding Advanced Fee Schemes

If the offer of an “opportunity” appears too good to be true, it probably is. Follow common business practice. For example, legitimate business is rarely conducted in cash on a street corner.

• Know who you are dealing with. If you have not heard of a person or company that you intend to do business with, learn more about them. Depending on the amount of money that you plan on spending, you may want to visit the business location, check with the Better Business Bureau, or consult with your bank, an attorney, or the police.
  
  
• Make sure you fully understand any business agreement that you enter into. If the terms are complex, have them reviewed by a competent attorney.
  
  
• Be wary of businesses that operate out of post office boxes or mail drops and do not have a street address. Also be suspicious when dealing with persons who do not have a direct telephone line and who are never in when you call, but always return your call later.
  
  
• Be wary of business deals that require you to sign nondisclosure or non-circumvention agreements that are designed to prevent you from independently verifying the bona fides of the people with whom you intend to do business. Con artists often use non-circumvention agreements to threaten their victims with civil suit if they report their losses to law enforcement.

When you send money to people you do not know personally or give personal or financial information to unknown callers, you increase your chances of becoming a victim of telemarketing fraud.

Every year, thousands of people lose money to telephone scams - from a few dollars to their life savings. Scammers will say anything to cheat people out of money. Some seem very friendly - calling you by your first name, making small talk, and asking about your family. They may claim to work for a company you trust, or they may send mail or place ads to convince you to call them.

If you get a call from someone you don’t know who is trying to sell you something you hadn’t planned to buy, say "No thanks." And, if they pressure you about giving up personal information - like your credit card or Social Security number - it’s likely a scam. Hang up and report it to the governemnt authorities.

Here are some warning signs of telemarketing fraud - what a caller may tell you:

• “You must act ‘now’ or the offer won’t be good.”
  
  
• "You've been specially selected (for this offer)."
  
  
• “You’ve won a ‘free’ gift, vacation, or prize." But you have to pay for “postage and handling” or other charges.
  
  
• "You trust me, right?"
  
  
• "This investment is low risk and provides a higher return than you can get anywhere else."
  
  
• “You must send money, give a credit card or bank account number, or have a check picked up by courier.” You may hear this before you have had a chance to consider the offer carefully.
  
  
• “You don’t need to check out the company with anyone.” The callers say you do not need to speak to anyone including your family, lawyer, accountant, local Better Business Bureau, or consumer protection agency.
  
  
• “You don’t need any written information about their company or their references.”
  
  
• “You can’t afford to miss this ‘high-profit, no-risk’ offer.”

If you hear these or similar “lines” from a telephone salesperson, just say “no thank you” and hang up the telephone.

How They Hook You

Scammers use exaggerated - or even fake - prizes, products or services as bait. Some may call you, but others will use mail, texts, or ads to get you to call them for more details. Here are a few examples of “offers” you might get:

• Travel Packages. “Free” or “low cost” vacations can end up cost­ing a bundle in hidden costs. Some of these vacations never take place, even after you’ve paid.
  
  
• Credit and loans. Advance fee loans, payday loans, credit card protection and offers to lower your credit card interest rates are very popular schemes, especially during a down economy.
  
  
• Sham or exaggerated business and investment opportunities. Promoters of these have made millions of dollars. Scammers rely on the fact that business and investing can be complicated and that most people don’t research the investment.
  
  
• Charitable causes. Urgent requests for recent disaster relief efforts are especially common on the phone.
  
  
• High-stakes foreign lotteries. These pitches are against the law, which prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail. What’s more, you may never see a ticket.
  
  
• Extended car warranties. Scammers find out what kind of car you drive, and when you bought it so they can urge you to buy overpriced - or worthless - plans.
  
  
• “Free” trial offers. Some companies use free trials to sign you up for products - sometimes lots of products - which can cost you lots of money because they bill you every month until you cancel.

Tips for Avoiding Telemarketing Fraud

It’s very difficult to get your money back if you’ve been cheated over the telephone. Before you buy anything by telephone, remember:

• Don’t buy from an unfamiliar company. Legitimate businesses understand that you want more information about their company and are happy to comply.
  
  
• Always ask for and wait until you receive written material about any offer or charity. If you get brochures about costly investments, ask someone whose financial advice you trust to review them. But, unfortunately, beware-not everything written down is true.
  
  
• Always check out unfamiliar companies with your local consumer protection agency, Better Business Bureau, state attorney general, the National Fraud Information Center, or other watchdog groups. Unfortunately, not all bad businesses can be identified through these organizations.
  
  
• Obtain a salesperson’s name, business identity, telephone number, street address, mailing address, and business license number before you transact business. Some con artists give out false names, telephone numbers, addresses, and business license numbers. Verify the accuracy of these items.
  
  
• Before you give money to a charity or make an investment, find out what percentage of the money is paid in commissions and what percentage actually goes to the charity or investment.
  
  
• Before you send money, ask yourself a simple question. “What guarantee do I really have that this solicitor will use my money in the manner we agreed upon?”
  
  
• Don’t pay in advance for services. Pay services only after they are delivered.
  
  
• Be wary of companies that want to send a messenger to your home to pick up money, claiming it is part of their service to you. In reality, they are taking your money without leaving any trace of who they are or where they can be reached.
  
  
• Always take your time making a decision. Legitimate companies won’t pressure you to make a snap decision.
  
  
• Don’t pay for a “free prize.” If a caller tells you the payment is for taxes, he or she is violating federal law.
  
  
• Before you receive your next sales pitch, decide what your limits are-the kinds of financial information you will and won’t give out on the telephone.
  
  
• Be sure to talk over big investments offered by telephone salespeople with a trusted friend, family member, or financial advisor. It’s never rude to wait and think about an offer.
  
  
• Never respond to an offer you don’t understand thoroughly.
  
  
• Never send money or give out personal information such as credit card numbers and expiration dates, bank account numbers, dates of birth, or social security numbers to unfamiliar companies or unknown persons.
  
  
• Be aware that your personal information is often brokered to telemarketers through third parties.
  
  
• If you have been victimized once, be wary of persons who call offering to help you recover your losses for a fee paid in advance.
  
  
• If you have information about a fraud, report it to state, local, or federal law enforcement agencies.