More small money scams surfacing, Better Business Bureau says don’t be fooled

“See these emblems, and this thing that looks like a certificate?  They always try to make these look official or like some government thing,“ Ross Howard from the Better Business Bureau tells me.

We’re looking at a mailing sent to one of our viewers that claims she’s won a million dollars. She just needs to send back $19.99 in “fees.“  Considering everything I’ve seen in the past few years with all these mail scams, that seems like a very small amount.  “You’re right,“ Howard says.  “We’re seeing more and more of these ‘small money’ scams as I like to call them.  They’re re-surfacing.“

Howard says even the crooks are affected by the changing economic climate.  “Scam artists are adjusting their pitches,“ he says.  “They used to ask for hundreds of dollars or even thousands of dollars in these so called fees.  Now they figure people may still be able to afford 20 or 30 bucks.“

Howard says there’s money to be made, even with the small scams.  “Back in 2001 we saw a good number of these scams and now they’ve re-surfaced,“ he says. “In one case where the U.S. Postal Service pressed charges against an individual - he was only asking for 25 dollars, but he actually got 45 thousand victims and actually made 1.3 million dollars off of the scam.“

Howard says in legitimate direct mail projects, there may not be a return of more than five to seven percent. “So you’ve got to mail out a lot of these to get a return but in these high volume mailings, it doesn’t cost that much for copies and they can use the bulk mail rates.“

Howard says in the case of the scam artist who made 1.3 million - if that man got five percent of consumers who received a mailing to respond, he would have had to mail out about 900,000 pieces of mail.  “At twenty or thirty cents a mailing, he might have actually spent about 270 thousand dollars,“ Howard says.  “But remember, he made $1.3 million dollars in the scam.“

The Better Business Bureau says whether it’s the promise of the lottery or a sweepstakes or something else we haven’t heard of yet, that no one offers you free money in the mail.  “The best thing to do with this stuff is give it back to your postal carrier or take it back to the post office and ask them to investigate,“ says Howard.