Don't Get Caught By These Scammers

Buyers beware of scams and shady deals that could leave your wallet thinner but with nothing to show for it. Here are a few we profiled recently.

Author:: Althea Chang
Publish date:: Sep 17, 2009 4:30 PM EDT

As the flu season approaches, swine flu scams could be heating up. They can include emails from an unknown e-mail address, possibly with “swine flu” in its domain name with a subject line that may promise new and vital swine flu information or warnings. They may even claim to sell “Chinese herbs” that will supposedly cure all your swine flu ailments. These emails might actually send you to phishing sites or trick you into downloading harmful computer viruses.According to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, part of the Department of Homeland Security, you should avoid following unsolicited web links or attachments in email messages, keep your antivirus software and firewall up to date, and set up your e-mail client for security.Photo Credit: jasleen_kaur

Scammers have been taunting the unemployed, underemployed and those just looking to make a quick buck with promises that the addictive social networking site Twitter can make you hundreds of dollars a day, according to the Better Business Bureau. These scams may come to you as unsolicited e-mails linking to a site promising that you can make up to $873 a day working at home, as long as you register for a seven-day free trial of an instructional CD, plus $1.95 shipping and handling. Not a bad deal at first glance, but the fine print may say that unless you call the company to cancel, you could be automatically charged $99 a month.The BBB says consumers should be wary of claims that you can make lots of money with little effort and no experience, job offers that may just be money making schemes and requests to pay money upfront for consideration or information. For more on this scam, click here.Photo Credit: carrot creative.

Shopping for a living may be an alluring idea for many even savvy consumers, but ads looking for mystery shoppers could very well be scams.While mystery shopper jobs do exist, scammers do post mystery shopping advertisements on Craigslist and other job classified sites, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.You could be asked, for example, to evaluate money transfer services for companies like MoneyGram. You’re sent a check to deposit into your personal bank account. Part of it is your compensation, and the rest is wired to a third party. But by the time the checks are discovered to be fake, you’ve already had money wired into a third party account.FINRA suggests you call companies directly to verify checks, do a name check and look for typos and unprofessional communications as red flags and if you do get scammed, report it.Photo Credit: HelloTurkeyToe

This may not be an outright scam, but it is a ploy that might make you pay money for less than what you’d expect to receive.It’s difficult enough to dole out as much as $12 for a movie ticket, much less the extra $5 or so to see a film on an IMAX screen, but what if your local IMAX doesn’t size up?The traditional IMAX (Stock Quote: IMAX) is 60 feet by 80 feet. Smaller versions of IMAX screens may be 25 feet by 58 feet, which might only be slightly larger than a regular movie screen. According to IMAX, 72 of its 138 screens are the smaller size, or just more than half. However, IMAX films are digitally remastered, sound quality is enhanced and the front rows of seating in IMAX theaters are removed.Photo Credit: Getty Images

Makers of so-called weight loss supplements continue to claim that antioxidant-rich açaí berries fight cancer and aging and promote weight loss and plaster ads on Facebook. They use the Oprah Winfrey, Rachel Ray, WebMD (Stock Quote: WBMD), and AOL Health (Stock Quote: TWX) names in their advertisements and imply that celebrities endorse their products. And at least one company, Central Coast Nutraceuticals, has taken advantage of this $15 million a year fad to offer free trials that lock consumers into expensive monthly orders of supplements for a free trial of the supplements unless a consumer cancels before they’re shipped. For more on this scam, click here.Photo Credit: Getty Images

Paying For Free Moneymaking Tips

Testimonials from bloggers who swear by online advertising secrets may sound convincing, but before you cough up the coin, consider this: Advice on using Google’s AdSense program, which people use to make money from ads on their Web sites, is actually available free on the Web. AdSense is also free to sign up for - you don’t need to buy a kit to get the revenue. Some companies may offer to sell you a kit for a few hundred dollars that is supposed to show you how to get a job with the Internet search giant, and start earning money right away. Google (Stock Quote: GOOG) has made clear that it has nothing to do with these kits. For more on this scam, click here. Photo Credit: ToastyKen