There are many legitimate income and business opportunities being offered through mail-order and now via E-mail. But most of the spam you receive will be a scam. These people send out millions of E-mails, rake in all the money they can in the shortest time period, and then disappear. Even honest people can be used to perpetuate the scams. You buy into it, then you start spamming the offers yourself to other unsuspecting folks looking for a way to get rich in a short time with little or no work.

Many of the same rules regarding legitimate mail-order dealers can also apply to dealers you do business with over the Internet or through E-mail...

#1) If the offer sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Don't just jump at an offer because you want it to be true... think it through and usually you will realize that it just isn't possible to make the money the seller claims. #2) Do they give you all the information necessary to contact them personally should you have any questions or problems? If they don't include a mailing address and phone number, avoid them like the plague. (A new law passed by Congress requires that all unsolicited E-mails contain this information. Of course, scammers can either ignore this or give false information.) #3) Ask around and see if any of your associates have heard of the program or the person and company you are considering doing business with. Do your homework, and you are less likely to get taken. Some offers are legitimate, but recognizing them among the dozens of scam offers can be next to impossible. If an offer guarantees to make you rich - run the other way - fast! It is impossible for one person to guarantee how much money another person will make with any opportunity. Listed here are some of the most common schemes currently being spammed on a regular basis: -Own A 900 Number: You are required to purchase or lease a 900 number which may or may not have a recorded offer. After you send your check or authorize payment with a credit card, the scammers leave you high and dry to advertise and promote your new "service" on your own. Quite often the 900 number doesn't even have an offer. You are left to come up with something to sell over the 900 number. If you are considering a 900 number business, check it out thoroughly before making an investment. -Finder's Fees: The sellers of this scam claim to tell you how you can make a huge income by locating people who are owned money by the government, helping others get grants and loans, or teaching people how to buy government seized property for just pennies on the dollar. The kicker is that you have to pay them to tell you how to do this, when the fact is that the information is free and readily available elsewhere. Anyone with a computer can go online and find out all this information absolutely free. If you don't own a computer, a little research at your local library can turn up the information. -Work-At-Home Opportunities: This scheme guarantees to help you get work you can do at home. These bogus offers include the infamous "envelope stuffing scam," mailing catalogs, clipping newspapers, reading books and assembling products. The catch is that you have to pay an initial investment fee. Stop and think for a moment - why should you have to pay someone to let you work for them? In all likelihood, you will never make enough money from their schemes to recoup your initial investment. -Use Your Computer To Make Money: This one always sounds really good to those people who have already invested in a home computer. But don't be taken in. There are several different versions of this particular con. One is getting you to use your computer to promote pyramid schemes (which are illegal) and you have to pay them to get this information. A second version is to sell you some really useless software and a complicated marketing plan. The way you make money is to sell this same software and marketing plan to other unsuspecting victims. One of the hottest versions of this scam is when they offer to set you up in business, usually doing something like transcribing medical records. The catch is that you are required to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to purchase their training package and highly overpriced software. It is doubtful if you will make enough money to cover your investment. -Old Mail-Order Scams Hit Cyberspace: The worst of mail-order has also made its way to the Internet and is being spammed to millions daily. The most common are the "Edward Green/ David Rhodes pyramid schemes. You are asked to send a list of four or five people $5.00 each for a recipe or report. You then delete the top name and add your name and address to the bottom. Then you have to buy hundreds of thousands of E-mail addresses so you can send "your" spam and wait for the $5 to come flooding in. Doesn't work folks. Besides, pyramid schemes are illegal, whether sent through the postal service or the Internet. Unfortunately, most of the offers you will receive via E-mail are only "opportunities" for you to line their pockets with your hard-earned money. The National Consumer's League (www.fraud.org) lists Internet and E-mail business opportunities and franchises among the ten most common frauds being worked against the public. So don't jump on these schemes just because you want to believe you can get rich in 90 days. Stop - think - and wait for legitimate opportunities.