Of course, business opportunity scams are nothing new. Prior to
the dawn of the Internet Age, ads for envelope stuffing, home
electronics assembly, multilevel vitamin sales and other dubious
opportunities could be found in the classified sections of
newspapers and grocery store "throw-away" magazines. The
difference is that, by advertising with spam and banner ads on Web
sites accessible from anywhere in the world, scammers are now able
to get their message out to a far larger segment of the population
than ever before.
Frauds involving homebased business opportunity schemes are
among the most common consumer complaints made to the National
Consumers League's Internet Fraud Watch, which offers victims
advice and transmits complaints to law enforcement agencies.
According to Susan Grant, director of the Internet Fraud Watch,
many recent scams involve medical billing opportunities that
promise people they can set up a lucrative home business providing
billing services for doctors and insurance companies. This sort of
opportunity is appealing because it seems plausible that companies
would contract out this type of work, but Grant says it just
isn't so.
And unlike older schemes such as envelope stuffing, which can
set victims back $50 to $100, some fraudulent medical billing
setups can cost the unwary thousands of dollars in outdated
software and inadequate training materials.
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