As consumers, we are constantly inundated with a barrage of lies. If a company has something to sell us, chances are that they are either lying by omission (they mention the reduced calories, but leave out the info about the insane sodium,) they baffle us with vague descriptions (“Four out of five dentists who chew gun chew our gum”,) or the just plain lie (“If you’re not completely satisfied, return the unused portion for a hassle free refund!)
There is one class of peddlers, however, that blows the rest away. These folks are the 21st century version of the traveling medicine show – they are selling us utter nonsense and doing it in such a pitifully transparent fashion, yet many are sucked right in. If you listen to the radio or watch television for any length of time, you have heard one of their pitches. I referring to the “Work From Home” gambit.
There are many incarnations of this breed. There is the offer that you can sell items from home without ever seeing the items you sell, let alone purchasing them ahead of time, storing them, or shipping them. Another popular scheme deals with taking advantage of the current “Buyer’s Market” in real estate to make millions. You can earn money in your pajamas by being a freelance medical billing specialist.
It’s cliche, but if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. These scams are no exception. According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), consumers are bilked out of tens of millions of each year on these kinds of fraudulent deals.
First, the real estate scheme. Yes, we are in a buyer’s market. But the obvious flaw in this is that once you buy, you are now the seller. These schemes point you toward sheriff sales and bank foreclosures. They charge you for the “guide” to getting rich turning over properties (that is how they make their money).
The same holds true with the selling mysterious items from home concept. At this stage of the game, selling on Ebay is easier than ever. Doesn’t it seem odd to think that you could make the thousands of dollars a week these ads promise doing something that a high school student could do – and would do – for minimum wage?
The medical billing con was the one that sounded the best to me. According the the BBB, the idea here is that you pay these crooks a fee for a “how to guide” and “resources”. The reality is that you still need to sell yourself. Lists that they may or may not provide would be quickly outdated (assuming their claims were remotely valid and doctors were scooping folks up) and you will end up having to peddle your services. Again, with local business schools turning out hoards of students with associates degrees in medical coding or terminology, graduates that are willing to work for about $10 per hour, why would a reputable physician or clinic contract out to a mysterious person who wears pajamas all day and pay them any more than that?
But here’s the biggest gag of all… If these schemes could make you even a fraction of the dough that they promise, why wouldn’t these companies take advantage of the ideas themselves. If you had really discovered a way to earn $40,000 a month turning over real estate, would you be paying for infomercials so you could sell the secret for $19.95? Just in case you’re bad at math, you would have to sell about 2000 of your “guides” to have a month like what they often promise.
Lastly, if you see a product advertised via spam emails, it is a sure sign that the product is worth avoiding.
So, there’s my guise for you. Not really a guide so much as a dose of reality. It’s not a “get rich quick’ scheme, but more of a “get poor a bit more slowly” scam. And I didn’t even charge you $19.95!
