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ABC TV program 20/20 report on work at home scams
Posted: admin on Mar 07 | Fraud protection
Reported on TV
On Friday, March 6th, 20/20 reported on the runaway fraud in the Work At Home industry, with a growing number of “Victims” supplied by the economic downturn. One expert reports “54 out of 55 work at home offerings are scams“.
Interviews included the victim of an unsophisticated envelop stuffing offer with a $37.94 setup price, that simple takes the money without delivering anything, the operator of one of these scams was shown being arrested. [The lesson learned, if it sounds too good to be true, like earning $12 per envelope stuffed, it's probably not true.]
Another classic case profiled involved a more sophisticated, secret shopper scam. The participant is sent a check for $3990 with the instructions to deposit it, then immediately go to Walmart to evaluate their moneygram service by sending $3500 back to the secret shopper service, keeping the $490 balance as payment. By the time the check is discovered to be counterfeit, the victim is out $3500, with a ruined credit rating. [ Always wait for funds transfer to be completed before drawing from a questionable check, no mstter how official it looks, clearing alone is not a gurantee the check will be good. The same bad check scheme is used by endless scams, including the classic Nigerian prince email scam]
The 3rd scam detailed was a rebate processing service bait and switch scheme, in which the rebate actually applies only to sales of impossible to market products.
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