BAD ECONOMY, GOOD OPPORTUNITY…FOR SCAMS

Here’s another of my pet peeves; people who still reply to advertising offers that are obviously too good to be true. I know we’re in a desperate economy, but that doesn’t mean you should fork out more money to get taken by the crooks. The latest is apparently rebate processing jobs, according to an MSNBC article by Herb Weisbaum. In general, the work-at-home scam has been worked over for years in the media, but the suckers are still out there and the bad guys know it.

Cindy Dalton tells us Rebate Processor Jobs is, “…unlike anything you may have heard of before! That's because this is not some 'get rich quick' or MLM program. This is actual, get paid every two weeks, work!” Denial works every time as part of the “convincing us” formula. Cindy will help you make from $200 to $1,000+ per day…if you pay her $39.00 first. Of all the complaints received by Gary Almond, vice president of the Los Angeles BBB, he says not one indicated they had made one penny. Along with Process At Home.com, Rebate Processor Jobs.com gets an “F” rating from the BBB.

Angel Stevens fronts for Process At Home, and she exclaims you need no experience, education or special skills, but you are guaranteed an “immediate position.” That’s a new way to make the pitch sound more official. Further, the latter will put up to $225 a day in your pocket. But wait, there’s more! It only takes you 60 minutes to make that. Now I’m sorry but anyone who bites after that is not working with all their faculties. If that wasn’t enough, one woman paid $197, apparently without first checking the BBB.

The National Consumer League has a couple pages of tips to stay out of harm’s way. Most are so obvious they shouldn’t have to be said over and over. To start, know who you’re dealing with because the scamsters just continue to come out of the woodwork. And it’s incredibly easy to broadcast millions of e-mails, so check out each one you plan to follow up on carefully. In other words, do your homework before you react. There are eleven tips in all, and I recommend that you visit the NCL site before you make any move on future work-at-home offers.

Someday, hopefully, there will be an official clearing house we can go to that will cover all categories of fraud, carefully grouped for simple searching techniques that don’t discourage the average consumer. I know, there are many organizations that document scams, but I am talking about an all-encompassing agency environment similar to the FTC’s Do-Not-Call Registry. I know I have a tendency to depend on government controls and regulation, but after what we have witnessed since last Fall, apparently the business world cannot be trusted to regulate itself.

In the meantime: IF IT LOOKS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE…IT PROBABLY IS.