Eve Tahmincioglu at MSN Business has an interesting article about start-up business scammers.
Just ask V.M. from the Austin, Texas, area. A longtime entrepreneur in the home-building industry, he had visions of launching his own online travel and health-care insurance business but ended up out nearly $5,000. He didn’t want his name used because he’s still fighting for a refund from the company that scammed him, but his experience is a cautionary tale for anyone desperate to start a business and tempted by Web-riches hyperbole.
V.M. was initially contacted via telephone by a representative of an Internet-based company that claimed it could set up Web sites for him and that he’d be able to make more than $3,000 a month from people going to the sites. He immediately checked out the company online, coming to the conclusion that “the site looked pretty decent.”
Even though he had been a successful entrepreneur and retired several years earlier, the stock market decimated his savings and he decided to start yet another business. An Internet company seemed ideal because he wanted to work from home – and the concept seemed simple enough.
V.M. has never seen a penny, even though he said customers did use the site. He contacted the Better Business Bureau and found out the firm had a long list of complaints against it. And when he complained to the company and threatened to sue if he didn’t get a refund, he said a company representative told him, “You can sue us but no one has ever gotten money back.”
Photo by dreamjay.