AG Nixon is warning Missourians today - especially seniors - to be on the lookout for this scam. A central Missourian was almost tricked out of $8000 by someone claiming to be his grandson and needing money to get out of jail. The consumer went to the wire transfer station to send the money. Fortunately a station employee got suspicious and warned him that it could be a scam. He didn't send the money.

Apparently, some of these crooks get lucky, in that they have a voice that sounds like the grandchild of the people they're calling. I guess if you call enough people, you'll get lucky eventually.

As many scams do, this one involved a request for a wire transfer. That is often a red flag - scammers love wire transfers because they can be picked up almost anywhere in the world. In other words, if I convince you to wire money in my name, I can pick it up at any of the thousands of wire transfer stations across the globe.

This is a scam that can hit individuals and businesses alike. You get what looks like an invoice in the mail - maybe for a magazine subscription. Turns out you never subscribed to this magazine, so this is just a solicitation. But it looks just like a bill - it has an amount due, the magazine name, the dates of the subscription -- maybe even an account number.

So if you're busy (like a lot of small businesses) you pay the bill. The solution is to keep good records of what you've subscribed to - whether it's a magazine, domain registration, yellow-page listing, etc. These things can hit businesses especially hard, because someone in the accounting department gets it, and assumes it's a bill for a product that someone else in the company ordered.

If you fall for one of these, you can file a consumer complaint with our office.

The  Florida Attorney General is looking into whether these pre-paid calling cards are delivering what they say they will.

Apparently his office is overhwhelmed with consumer complaints on this subject. Phone issues were the fourth-highest complaint category in our office's top 10 complaints list in 2007. One of the FL AG's biggest concerns is that this problem disproportionately affects Hispanics.

We have blogged about online dating scams in the past, but the story of a St. Louis woman shows that these scammers can be far more patient and calculating than you might have imagined. Her story involves a nice e-mail based relationship with someone that built over a year's time. Then he asked for money.

Unlike most, this story has a happy ending, at least financially - she got her money back.

Some of the most tragic cases we see in consumer protection involve funeral homes defrauding customers - or future customers.

AG Nixon announced a settlement in one such case this week. In Missouri you can buy a "pre-need" or "pre-paid" funeral, which means you buy it while you're still alive, so that you can pick out what you want and your loved ones don't have to worry about the bill.

Missouri law requires that the funeral home put 80% of that money into a trust fund, untouchable for any reason other than your funeral when you die. Consumer fraud comes in when the owners spend that money for other purposes. That means when you die, it's not there to pay for your funeral. And unfortunately, we have seen a number of cases.

In 2005, AG Nixon filed Operation Grave Concerns, a group of lawsuits and criminal charges against companies in the bereavement industry.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office, the prosecuting attorney for the City of St. Louis, is warning against a phone survey that could result in someone stealing your identity to take out a life insurance policy. Read for yourself.

It's an excellent press release that warns of some dire consequences - and not just identity theft - that could happen as a result of a life insurance policy being taken out in your name without your knowledge.

With a huge section of southern Missouri dealing with the floods of 2008, AG Nixon is warning flood victims not to get victimized a second time by con artists. As with any damaging storm, the crooks come out of the woodwork to take advantage of home and business owners in dire need of repairs. There also might be merchants who significantly raise prices to profit off these needy flood victims looking for things like bottled water, ice, plywood, generators, etc.

Once the flood waters recede, a lot of people will need to hire contractors to do flood restoration. The press release linked above has our best advice for watching for red flags and hiring reliable contractors to do this work. The biggest pointers: avoid the door-to-door solicitors and don't pay full price up front for services that haven't yet been performed.

We also advise you to get your agreement with contractors in writing. If they don't do contracts, write up your own and have them sign it. Our home repair worksheet may help you do that.

Make sure the person you're dealing with actually has the authority to rent the place. Our good buddy Nancy Lewis of the Fox 4 TV Problem Solvers unearthed this scam from the KC area. (Check out the video.)

A couple, supposedly on a mission trip in Nigeria, was advertising a place for rent and asking for a $700 deposit. The catch? The homeowner didn't know anything about it, and didn't even know these people. The scammers apparently got the house info from an online real estate listing.

You might not think ID theft would be a threat to children, but think again.

In some ways, a child is the ideal victim, because they have no credit history (which is better than bad history) and it may be years before they discover they're a victim. Forbes magazine has a nice story on it.

A significant number of ID theft cases reported to the authorities each year involve victims under 18. We recommend parents (or kids themselves, depending on age) check their kids' credit reports about once a year. This is compared to 3x per year that we recommend for adults. All of which can be done for free. While you can request an adult credit report by phone or online, you'll have to mail in your request for a minor's credit report. If the answer is "there is no credit file on this person," that's good - that's what you want. If there is credit history on your child, you'd better find out why. Could be ID theft.

If you have problems with ID theft, you can file a complaint with our office.

AG Nixon this week announced the shutdown of another company that uses "activation checks" to trick businesses into buying advertising they don't want. An activation check - or live check - is one of those checks for $2 or $3 that you endorse and cash, and it commits you to something. It could be telemarketing calls, it could be advertising, some credit monitoring service, etc. If you look at the back of the check, you'll see language on there that you're agreeing to - that is essentially a contract when signed. So be careful with these checks.

We busted two different online yellow page operations about a year ago for the same thing.

We just blogged last week about some fraud cases where a small business is the victim.

Well, here's a brand new example from St. Louis. Apparently these scammers were calling businesses to collect on outstanding bills for advertising. But there never was any advertising, and apparently the publication they claimed to work for either was out of business or never existed. One business owner got suspicious, but not until after she paid the bill.

This is a classic example of scammers trying to take advantage of weaknesses in the accounting process of a small business. They call to collect on a bill, saying someone in the office had ordered the product or service. Small business people are often in a hurry, or don't have the time or money to do the record-keeping of a larger company - so they pay the bill just to get it out of the way.

Businesses can file complaints with our office here.

I recently gave a talk at a seminar for small business owners, reminding them that they are consumers as well. Anyone who pays bills, hires vendors, signs contracts for services, etc, is a consumer.

So that means they can be victims of fraud, and they can file consumer complaints with our office. We filed around 60 lawsuits in consumer cases in 2007, and 15 of those involved businesses as a victims. Highlights of the last couple of years:

• Yellow-page companies sent checks for small amounts to companies. When cashed, these activation checks obligated the business to an online yellow-page ad they didn't want or even know about.
• Junk fax company busted for sending faxes to businesses. Sending unsolicited faxes is illegal.
• Company charging businesses for posters that say "Employees must wash hands." All such required government posters can be obtained for free from government agencies (OSHA, Family Medical Leave Act, employment rights, etc)
• Company charged businesses to build Web sites and didn't deliver.
• Another company charged for Internet advertising and didn't deliver.
• Company grossly overcharged businesses for credit card processing machines.
• Fire extinguisher inspectors who didn't perform. 2 different inspection companies left a lot of businesses not only ripped off but in grave danger of fire. This one could have lots of victims we don't know about yet.

Watch for a piece next week on the common scams that target businesses.

Missouri consumer writes:

I received an E-Mail from: Internal Revenue Service Subject: Tax Refund (Message ID JN237A). "A Secure Way to Receive Your Tax Refunds." They ask you to click to fill out a form. I have not done this.

Good for you. This is a scam. The form will no doubt ask for your Social Security or bank account number. This is simply a way to steal your identity. You can read more about the IRS phishing scam e-mail in our consumer encyclopedia and see a sample(PDF). No legitimate organization, including the IRS, will e-mail you asking for personal information. The IRS itself puts out warnings about this every year.

Also, watch out for e-mails or phone calls claiming to help you process your tax rebate. The IRS is warning about this, too.

The answer is both. There are plenty of mystery shopper / secret shopper scams out there, but there are hundreds of legitimate companies that hire and pay people to do this. Scambusters.org has a nice article that explains how to become a mystery shopper, how to spot the real opportunities from the scams and how to find a reputable company. There is actually an association of these companies.

When it comes to real vs. scams, two big pointers: if they contact you unsolicited, it's probably a scam. If they want money up front, probably a scam. And if they send you a check, then ask you to send some of the money elsewhere, that's the overpayment scam.

You can check to see if our office has complaints against one of these companies at our KnowMO link.

Investment regulators from around the country are getting a little worried that consumers may start falling for some investment scams because of the madness in the stock market these days. As always, the best advice when dealing with long-term investments is to take a long-term view, and don't make rash decisions because of a volatile time like this.

We have lots of tips on avoiding investor fraud on page 24 of our Know Your Rights publication, and you can find them at the Secretary of State's Web site also.