Saturday, April 30, 2005 March - April 2005   VOLUME 1 ISSUE 11   CONTENTS Some Scam Artists Target Businesses High Cost Payday Lenders Advertise Everywhere International Matchmaking: As Successful as Advertised? Ignore the Knock of a Business "Opp" Welcome February & March 2005 New Members! February Statistics March Statistics BBB Links Membership Info Topics of Interest Past Issues January - February 2005 February 10, 2005 Vol. 1 Issue 10 December 2004 January 24, 2005 Vol. 1 Issue 9 November 2004 December 29, 2004 Vol. 1 Issue 8 October 2004 November 15, 2004 Vol. 1 Issue 7 September 2004 October 17, 2004 Vol. 1 Issue 6 August 2004 August 31, 2004 Vol. 1 Issue 5 July 2004 July 31, 2004 Vol. 1 Issue 4 June 2004 June 28, 2004 Vol. 1 Issue 3 May 2004 May 28, 2004 Vol. 1 Issue 2 April 2004 April 23, 2004 Vol. 1 Issue 1 Some Scam Artists Target Businesses Small business owners often pride themselves on being good judges of character, with a nose for nonsense. Most would claim to be savvy about making purchasing decisions. Sadly, that is not always the case. Better Business Bureaus routinely field complaints from business owners, managers and accountants who have fallen prey to scam artists. [FULL STORY]   High Cost Payday Lenders Advertise Everywhere Payday loans can be tempting. Advertisements promising money to “tide you over until your next paycheck” appear at check cashing outlets, in pawn shops, within the classified ads and increasingly, online. Cyberspace is the new marketing frontier for payday loans with check-based lenders promoting their services through pop-up ads, in junk e-mail and on Web sites. While those “cash until payday” services sound helpful, consumers need to know the risks. Cash-strapped consumers can find themselves enmeshed in an endless cycle of repeated borrowing at extremely high costs. [FULL STORY]   International Matchmaking: As Successful as Advertised? As Internet matchmaking services become more main stream, more suitors apparently are expanding their pool of potential mates beyond their country’s borders. There are at least 200 matchmaking agencies in the U.S. that broker marriages between American men and foreign women, arranging up to 6,000 unions a year. Unlike domestic dating agencies that offer their services to both sexes, brokers of foreign marriages do not typically target their services to American women seeking a spouse from abroad. [FULL STORY]   Ignore the Knock of a Business "Opp" The advertisements are enticing: Earn between $60,000-$80,000 a year investing in DVD movie rental vending machines! Earn $500 per week doing medial billing; we provide the training! Honest, serious home workers can make up to $800 per week for assembling products at home, with NO SPECIAL SKILLS REQUIRED! Join our Web-broker program and earn substantial commissions as we team you up with Fortune 500 companies! These and other business opportunity ads may trumpet "be your own boss," "set your own hours," "work from home," and "earn money quickly," but the Federal Trade Commission and Better Business Bureau know that the end result is substantial consumer injury. BBBs process 10,000 complaints each year from consumers who states they were misled by or lost money to such promotions. In a recent major business opportunity assault launched by the FTC, the 200 defendants caused tens of thousands of consumers to lose a total of more than $100 million. [FULL STORY]   Welcome February & March 2005 New Members! [FULL STORY]   February Statistics [FULL STORY]   March Statistics [FULL STORY]   Published by Better Business Bureau of Silicon Valley

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