A Bagging of Tricks

· Easy Money Internet companies Wealth Systems Inc. and Ecommerce Network.com LLC operated an illegal work-at-home scheme that enticed consumers to pay $300 to $1,400 or more for materials to learn how to become "Web brokers" and earn $20,000 to $50,000 "next year," according to the FTC. But once consumers bought the "Web Broker Package," the commission says, coaches from the two companies used high-pressure tactics to persuade them to buy advertising services for as much as tens of thousands of dollars -- bilking consumers of $15 million. Few, if any, of the buyers made any money, and few received refunds. The settlement requires the companies to pay redress of $80,000, suspending the remainder of money that was scammed due to insufficient funds.

· Going Postal FTC charges allege that Success Express Inc. (doing business under more than a dozen company names) ran official-looking classified ads nationwide in employment guides and newspapers promising U.S. Post Office jobs to consumers who paid $129 to $139 for its study course. The defendants, the FTC says, misled consumers to believe they were connected with or endorsed by the USPS and were hiring for postal positions paying $16.20 to $39 an hour, and made false promises that there were postal service jobs open in the consumer's geographical areas.

· No Account A group of U.S. and Canadian telemarketers using fictitious business names, including "Royal Credit Solutions," "Imperial Consumer Services" and "Beneficial Client Care," is settling FTC charges that its solicitors scammed more $9 million by offering consumers with poor credit major credit cards with a $2,500 limit for an advance fee of $197 to $300. Implying in calls that they had the ability to issue credit cards, the telemarketers also said they were calling to verify the consumers' information and requested bank account numbers and the account holder's name, as well as personal ID information such as birth date, mother's maiden name and Social Security number. Consumers who paid the fees never received credit cards. To settle the charges, the defendants are banned from credit-related telemarketing and will pay $415,000 in consumer redress.

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