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Last week we listed the Top 10 Scams in 2008 for Canada, as identified by the Canadian Better Business Bureau. You’ll find that this week’s list for the U.S., from the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois, contains some of the same scams.
As you read the list, the BBB advises that you remember three general rules to avoid being the victim of a scam. Those are: Don’t pay upfront fees for promised services; always confirm who is asking for personal or financial information; and, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Another caveat is, check out a business through the BBB before you sign a contract or make a purchase. The Top 10 Scams list for 2008 in the U.S. were:
1. Check scams. Beware of unexpected checks arriving in the mail. Never cash one and send money somewhere in the form of a money gram.
2. Advance fee lenders. Often, these scammers promise to help out on bill consolidation or other needs. They ask for fees to cover all sorts of services, from credit checks to credit record improvement schemes.
3. Mortgage foreclosure rescue scams. These guys prey on desperate people — and have been caught all but stealing people’s homes from them. If you need a mortgage rescue, contact your mortgagor directly, first, and always deal with someone you know locally to help you.
4. Illegitimate credit repair & debt negotiation services. Some of these companies are legitimate in that they possibly can negotiate payments with your creditors — but that’s something you can do for yourself. And as far as credit repair goes, nothing can erase anything from credit report except time, unless the questioned report is in error. And even that, you can fix yourself.
5. Work-at-home and fraudulent employment opportunites. Sorry, but 99.9 percent of those work-at-home schemes are deals in which the only one who’s making money are the guys who ask you to send them upfront money for “training,” “product placement,” “work materials” and other types of services or goods the scammers say you need to produce the money they say you’ll make.
6. Phishing and fake cards. Plain and simple: Don’t click on links that arrive in your e-mailboxes from people you don’t know. Even then, sometimes those e-mails can be pirated — meaning somebody’s stolen your friend’s e-mail address for nefarious purposes.
7. Mystery/secret shopping scam. The most common form of this scam is that you get a letter, usually by e-mail, offering to hire you to check out a local business, almost always a Western Union. You are sent a check to check them out with, which you deposit in your bank, then take the cash to go buy a moneygram and send to the so-called secret shopping company. Only the check is fake, and you’re left holding the bag.
8. Phony directories and yellow pages. These guys either bill businesses for listings they never ordered and don’t anything about, or call up businesses offering to sell the listings. They worm enough information out of your front-desk person to bill you, and you’re stuck.
9. Grant and government job finding entities. The ONLY official government grant site on the Web is grants.gov. The ONLY official government jobs site is usajobs.gov. And know that you can navigate these sites quite easily on your own — you don’t need to pay someone to do it for you. Also, be aware that most government grants go to corporations and/or nonprofit agencies, not individuals.
10. Deceptive weight loss products advertising. The BBB says complaints regarding weight loss products are increasing. Also, the BBB nationwide has received thousands of complaints about “free trial” offers that supposedly were endorsed by celebrities like Oprah. In the end, the “free” trial cost consumers lots of money.
TIP OF THE WEEK: Want to find out which charities get the best reviews and how they spend their money? Visit Charity Navigator online at charitynavigator.org. Here you’ll find Top 10 Lists and lots of information on evaluating the charities that you might be interested in helping.
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