Scammers seem to come out of the woodwork during Spring. With better weather, comes more door-to-door sales, resulting in an increase in scams.

One such scam is described in this article, which advises caution of "asphalt scams" --  an old scam in which people are approached by a con artist who says he will do repairs on your driveway. After he gets paid, the  scammer disappears without repairing your drive.

If this type of scam has happened to you, please contact the AGO's Consumer Protection division and file a complaint.

With all the news lately about a massive Ponzi scheme that allegedly defrauded investors of $50 billion, you may be wondering about the difference between this and a pyramid scheme.

The terms are often used interchangeably, but there is a difference. A Ponzi scheme is basically a passive investment scheme. You pay in your money, wait and eventually get a return on your investment. All the organizers ask for is your money. You can recruit other people to invest, but you don't have to.

A pyramid scheme, however, requires that you become involved in the business to make money. So you pay to get in, then you have to recruit others to join before you get paid.

Thus here's a big difference between the two: Ponzi schemes usually have innocent victims. Pyramid schemes, however, don't. By participating in the business, you are likely to be called a co-conspirator by any prosecutor or lawsuit that tries to shut the scheme down.

Here's the similarity: In both cases, money from new investors goes to pay off earlier investors. The reason these scams are illegal is that there are not enough people on earth to guarantee returns for all investors.

This chart from the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows how quickly one of these schemes will run out of potential investors. Note that after just a dozen levels or so, you would need more people than the entire population of the world to keep things going.

We expect to see the scam artists crank up their efforts to take advantage of people who may be in financial need due to the current economic problems. Three scams to watch for in this climate:

• Phishing scams - these are ever-popular, but with consumers nervous about their bank accounts and investments and the safety of both, the crooks may try to cash in on that. For example, you've been hearing news for months about the down market on Wall Street. Then you get an e-mail that claims to be from your investment house saying there's a problem with your account. That may get your attention. So remember, rule #1 of identity theft is never give out your personal information to anyone who contacts you.
• Work-at-home scams - with consumers feeling a financial pinch, they may look to make extra money while working from home. Check out the tips from our consumer encyclopedia on this topic. There are plenty of good ways to make money from home, but there are also scams.
  First red flag is unsolicited contact. To get a good work-at-home opportunity, you need to go out and find it. Any contact that comes to you, by phone or e-mail, is probably a scam.
  Second red flag is a request for money up front for processing fees, etc. You should never pay to get a job. Remember, they're supposed to pay you.
• "Rescue" scams - this could be credit repair, foreclosure rescue or some other apparent service that will get you out of a jam. Remember that no one can remove negative information from your credit report if it's accurate. Only time and good discipline will improve your credit score. And we've seen plenty of cases of foreclosure rescue scams, including the lawsuits we brought in Operation Stealing Home.
  If you're looking to hire a company to help you solve a problem, first check them out for consumer complaints using our KnowMO feature.

Businesses with PBX phone systems have been the latest pawns in the phishing scams run by identity thieves. "Vishing" is the term used for a phishing scam that uses the phone, rather than e-mail. Law enforcement around the country is warning that phishers are now taking over PBX systems and using them to make mass robo-calls to try to steal people's personal information. If you've ever worked in an office, you've probably used a PBX system. It handles incoming and outgoing calls, extensions, outside lines, voice mail, call transfering, etc.

Thieves are taking over PBX systems because a) those systems usually have a lot of lines available for mass calling and b) it allows them to look like they're calling from somewhere else.

So if you run an office and use free software to run your PBX system, get in touch with your software provider to make sure it's updated to handle the latest threats. This is similar to how you should handle your computer security - use anti-virus, a firewall and spyware detection, and make sure all of them are updated.

Pretty close to home on this one - remember the overpayment scam and wiring money to strangers.

We put out a consumer alert this week because there are already ticket sellers offering presidential inauguration tickets, which don't exist yet. And the price is high - $1000 and up.

Here's the real scoop:

1. Tickets are free
2. You can only get them from your U.S. senator or U.S. representative. They won't be available until about a week before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

File a consumer complaint with our office if you suspect a scam.

This is one of those terms, like Lemon Law, that most consumers have heard but may not know the exact definition. A bait-and-switch scheme occurs when you are promised one thing and you get another - that's according to Missouri law.

Usually it refers to being promised one product and getting another. But we have brought lawsuits where consumers are promised one price and given another. This was the case when we sued the Procycle motorcycle dealerships in Columbia and Springfield.

For the exact legal definition, check out page 6 of these regulations.

As with any violation of Missouri's fair trade laws, you can file a complaint with our office if you suspect a bait-and-switch operation going on.

The St. Louis area Better Business Bureau is warning of a new scam claiming to be a secret (mystery) shopper opportunity run by something called Edward Jones Market Research, with a St. Louis address. Turns out it's based in Canada and not affiliated with the Edward Jones company.

We have written about these secret shopper scams before. Apparently this one uses the overpayment scam as the way to get your money.

There are e-mails that get fowarded all the time on this topic, and for good reason. This is a real scam that can happen to you, but only if you have call forwarding available on your home phone. There is another version of the scam that can only happen to you if you have a certain type of business phone system - more on that later.

Here's how it works:

Inmate in a Chicago prison calls a Missourian named Igor. He tells Igor that a loved one has been in an accident. Igor is then instructed to dial a number to speak to the officer on scene through his radio. He is to hang up and dial *72 or 72#, followed by a phone number. This actually forwards the consumer's phone to that phone number, which belongs to an acquaintance of the inmate.

The inmate then makes a collect call to Igor's number - which forwards to the acquaintance's phone, a long distance call. The acquaintance answers the phone and accepts the collect call - which is billed to guess who? Igor, because the collect call was placed to his number.

If that's confusing, don't worry about it. All you need to remember is: don't ever start dialing numbers just because a stranger on the phone tells you to.

If this happens to you, report it to the police and if you like, file a consumer complaint with our office.

PS: There is another version of this e-mail going around that says you are instructed to dial 90#, #90 or some other combination. But that is only a threat if you are at a business that uses a phone system requiring you to dial 9 for an outside line. And most businesses are not susceptible to this anymore because of changes to the way most phone systems operate.

We've seen complaints lately about suspicious job offers inviting people to be a "HUD Tracer." The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) keeps a list of people who are due refunds related to their HUD-backed mortgages. These lists are public, and there are third-party companies that take those lists and try to track the recipients down - or hire people to track them down.

That's where the bogus job opportunities come from - you might see an ad looking for HUD tracers. If you find a recipient who's due money, you charge them a fee to get their refund. Most of that fee goes to the third-party company, and you keep a percentage. In some cases, as with many work-at-home scams, you are required to pay a fee to sign up - that's a red flag.

But it's very hard to make money at this game. This article explains why.

If you get one of these offers, you can file a consumer complaint with our office.

Moneygram is a player in the international wire transfer business, and it has agreed to a huge settlement with our office and other AGs across the country. The purpose is to warn consumers about potential for wire fraud. Here is a preview of what consumer will see as a cover sheet on all wire transfer applications.

We always say that a request to wire money when doing business is a major red flag. Con artists love wire transfers as the method of payment because the money can be collected at any transfer station in the world.

We have seen wire transfer fraud in the "Grandparents scam," foreign lotteries, adoption scams and many others - even the "hay scam" we saw in Missouri last year.

In the typical scenario, the scammer contacts an unsuspecting consumer and somehow convinces him he needs to send money. He then asks it to be done via wire transfer, often using Western Union or Moneygram.

Western Union reached a similar agreement in 2005. Here is their fraud warning - it appears as a cover page on applications.

The massive flooding in northeast Missouri will surely be followed by a massive campaign by con artists to scam those flood victims. AG Nixon put out a consumer alert with the warnings.

It could be price gouging: for example, people need pumps, generators, bottled water, etc, and merchants start jacking up the prices, simply to take advantage of the dire need.

It could be home repair scams: for example, a carpet, siding or cleaning contractor comes knocking on doors soliciting business in a flood-damaged neighborhood. He collects $2000 to do a job, then disappears.

Take a look at the consumer alert for our best advice on avoiding and reporting these problems.

The Federal Trade Commission today announced its biggest ever bust of telemarketing scammers, called Operation Tele-PHONEY. The FTC worked with 30 different law enforcement agencies across the country, including AG Nixon, to announce legal action against almost 200 bogus operations.

 Three of AG Nixon's cases were included in this sweep. They were:

• Operation Helping our Heroes - a bogus charity that used telemarketing calls to raise money supposedly for homeless veterans. Contrary to its claims, it's not tax exempt and the money is not going to help veterans. AG Nixon got a restraining order to shut them down.
• National Dealers Warranty - one of those car extended warranty companies we targeted in Operation Taken for a Ride.
• National Auto Warranty Services, Inc. - another car extended warranty company

The FTC has released tw two videos with education about avoiding telemarketing fraud.

One of the biggest annoyances in the life of a small business (or anyone with a fax machine) is the unsolicited fax. These are more than a nuisance - they cost you money: paper, toner, wear and tear on the fax machine and they may tie up your machine when you're expecting something important.

They are also illegal, under federal and state law.

We have sued and won against junk faxers. Here's one example, and here's another. That's because we get consumer complaints about them. Businesses or individuals can file a complaint and send their junk faxes into our office.

Recommendation: Do not opt out of receiving further faxes. This is like opting out of spam e-mail. All it does is confirm to the sender that they've hit a working fax number.

AG Nixon's consumer alert today warns that a lot of consumers with mortgages are getting offers in the mail that look like they're from the bank or lender that holds your mortgage. But they're not - they're from a third party, addressed to you and mentioning the name of your lender in big letters.

The point is, these companies are trying to play on the trust you may have with your lender, to get you to think this is an important service you need. They mailings are offering either mortgage insurance or refinancing. Just know that these are from somebody else, and file a complaint with us if you see something deceptive or fraudulent.

BTW, these remind me of those car extended warranty offers. Some company goes through public records, finds that you've made a major purchase, and sends you mailings that look like they're from the company you're already in business with. You may know that AG Nixon sued several of these extended warranty companies recently.