Swindlers' List: Dieters, Debtors and You

One would think that consumers would have become hip to most frauds thanks to the constant warnings by consumer groups and federal agencies.

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And yet, the victimization continues.

For example, the Internal Revenue Service has issued warnings over the last several months urging people to ignore bogus e-mails that, at first glance, appear to have been sent from the agency. The most recent advisory cautioned about a scam e-mail asking for charitable contributions to victims of the Southern California wildfires. The e-mail contains a link that sends recipients to a Web site that looks similar to the IRS site. The scam is set up to steal personal and financial information.

Another fraudulent e-mail told taxpayers that they were eligible to receive a tax refund.

You're probably saying to yourself: Who in their right mind would respond to fake e-mails, lottery scams or bogus business ventures?

Well, millions of people do.

The Federal Trade Commission reported recently that in 2005, 30.2 million adults -- 13.5 percent of the adult population in the United States -- were victims of fraud.

It shouldn't be surprising (wasn't to me) that people in debt are more likely to believe a lying, low-down crook. Desperate, debt-ridden consumers are most often snared by three types of scams: advance-fee loans, credit repair and debt consolidation.

But overall, the FTC survey found that more people -- an estimated 4.8 million -- were victims of fraudulent weight-loss products than of any other scheme covered in the survey.

Maybe in this case, victim isn't the right word. Gullible might better describe the people who pay lots of money for weight-loss products that include nonprescription drugs, dietary supplements, skin patches, creams, wraps and the like. None of the products delivers on the promise that the user can lose a substantial amount of weight.

The FTC reported that fraudulent foreign lottery offers and buyers-club memberships tied for second place, with an estimated 3.2 million victims for these two scams.

If you have an e-mail address, you've probably gotten a lottery scam e-mail. I get them almost daily. This scam mostly works by getting people to send money (a fee, they are told, or to pay taxes) in order to collect their winnings. In the case of buyers clubs, unsuspecting people are billed for memberships for which they never signed up.