Scam Watch

The pitch: Earn $1,400 a week stuffing envelopes at home!

The reality: According to the Federal Trade Commission, envelope-stuffing and other work-at-home schemes frequently targeted to Spanish speakers are often fraudulent. Last week, the FTC announced the results of a study that examined 300 home-business offers. About two-thirds of them were potentially deceptive, the FTC said, because they made specific earnings claims, promised to be “no-risk” propositions or were otherwise questionable.

The charges: Also last week, the FTC announced that a federal court had granted a restraining order against a Florida company, Integrity Marketing Team, that advertised its envelope-stuffing business in Spanish- and English-language publications. The agency said in documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida that most consumers, after paying a $45 “deposit,” never heard from the company or were told the real business was to replicate the scheme in their own cities. Integrity Marketing could not be reached for comment.

Info: The FTC’s actions are described in English at www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/10/homework.shtm and in Spanish at www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/10/homeworks.shtm.

-- David Colker