Twitter scams proliferate in tough economy

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Scams have arrived on Twitter. Credit: waltercolor via Flickr.

The hot spot for online scam artists has moved again -- from e-mail and Google to Twitter, according to the Better Business Bureau.

Websites, e-mails and tweets have been popping up since late spring promising to help job seekers make hundreds of dollars a day, simply by tweeting from home.

But here’s the hitch: Customers first have to sign up for a “free” trial for an informational CD or training packet and submit their credit card information to pay a minor shipping fee.

Most people don’t notice the provision, nestled deep in a mass of terms and conditions, that the trial period begins when the customer places the order and includes the time spent shipping the product. What happens next, according to the bureau, is that customers don’t cancel their membership in time and end up shelling out $50, even $100 or more, every month.

Unfortunately, high unemployment caused by a rough economy makes people especially vulnerable to such schemes. For more, see this article in Tuesday’s L.A. Times.

-- Tiffany Tsu