On Tuesday, Jan 5, 2010, The BBB – Better Business Bureau announced the top 10 scams and complaints received by all the BBB offices across the US.
BBB Scams for 2009 – Top 10 List
These are in no particular order.
- How to Get Stimulus and Government Grant money
- Automated dialing – Robocalls – about such things as auto warranty expirations, or credit card interest reduction programs
- Free Trials for products like Acai Berry Supplements or Teeth Whitening Free Trial supposedly endorsed by celebs such as Rachel Ray, Oprah, or Doctor OZ. (I actually fell for something like this a few years back)
- Job hunting scams that requested prospects to get a credit check but lured the prospect into some type of unwanted credit monitoring program.
- The old scam of winning a foreign lottery, sweepstakes where you have to deposit a check and then wire some money to cover processing the transaction.
- Work from home to make $1,000’s working for Google or Twitter.
- Mystery Shopper and Secret Shopper schemes
- Illegitimate credit repair and loan modification and stop foreclosure programs – companies that required an upfront fee but did not do anything.
- Over payment scams on Craigs List that targeted small business owners and landlords with vacant rooms.
- Emails disguised as coming from authorities such as your bank, the IRS, the FBI that were set up to collect financial information which was then used to get money from the victim or for identity theft.
- (This is the extra one that I’m adding) – The spammy emails disguised as coming from Facebook that talks about confirming log in information or changes of procedure.
For more information about these scams and other consumer scams contact either the BBB.org or the FTC.gov