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MONEY COMMENT
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Whenever April Fool's Day comes around, my mental antennae tend to go on special alert. I've been caught too many times by some gag or other that makes me feel, well, rather foolish, although I'm pleased to say that even I saw through that old one about spaghetti growing on trees. At any rate, every 1st of April I can be found reading my newspaper with a very doubtful look on my face. If you fell for our own April Fool joke, then you might be a prime candidate for a fresh message from the Office of Fair Trading to beware of internet scams that sound too good to be true. Ours wasn't a scam but, unfortunately, there are plenty of them out there. The OFT has just conducted an international sweep of the internet along with 30 other countries looking for dodgy websites offering goods, services and prizes that sound much too good to be true. They found 176 of them operating from the UK alone and 1,847 websites were found worldwide. The UK-based websites included 90 working from home schemes, 52 get-rich-quick schemes, 20 lottery scams, 15 free prize offers, and 4 sites offering educational qualifications. More than 234 breaches of UK consumer protection laws were identified and trading standards officers are now in the process of tracking down the culprits. The sort of things people should watch out for include: Any scheme that looks too good to be true is probably exactly that. At the very least, potential takers should do a bit of research on the business and read properly any terms and conditions before handing over any money. Anyway, must be off. I've just discovered the Motley Fool's launched a new service which will track the value of my house simply by checking my postcode. How fab! More: Double Your Money Today! | Email Scam | Investments That Sound Too Good To Be True | Financial Scams discussion board.