As summer and graduation approach, students should beware of business opportunity hoaxes, which again topped the list of consumer complaints in Arizona in 2007.
Complaints about shoddy business services, used-car dealers, debt collectors and vehicle repairs rounded out the top 5.
The state Attorney General's office said Tuesday it received more than 46,000 complaint calls last year, 23,000 of which resulted in the Attorney General's office filing formal complaints.
If a solicited job opportunity, or one found by a student, promises large sums of money for a small amount of work, it is most likely a scam, said Tracy Clark, Associate Director of the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center at the W. P. Carey School of Business.
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Clark said. "The amount of training that you need for a job has to be fairly well-coordinated with how much money you are going to get out of it."
Film and media production sophomore Tyler Heald said he fell victim to a business scam last summer.
A job recruiter approached Heald on campus and asked him if he was interested in being on a TV show called "The Prodigy" and working a summer job with the potential of earning at least $20,000, Heald said.
Heald said he was told that he could get $1 million if he won the competition.
"They hooked us as soon as they promoted a lot of money and chance to be on TV," he said. "Everything was a lie at the end."
Heald, along with at least four other ASU students, spent their summers in Northern California selling door-to-door security without once seeing a camera, Heald said.
He said he and his co-workers worked 11 hours six days a week and were often not given compensation promised to them.
He added that he didn't know what the job entailed when he signed a contract to confirm his involvement in the show.
"I didn't read it carefully, thinking back," Heald said. "If I did it again, I would grab the contract and take it home to have a lawyer look over it."
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard is focused on providing information to consumers to prevent them from becoming victims of unethical business practices, said Arizona Attorney General office spokeswoman Andrea Esquer.
"What's important is making the consumer whole," Esquer said. "Our goal is to make sure the consumer is taken care of."
In 2007, the Consumer Information and Complaints Unit recovered more than $3 million for consumers, which is $1 million more than was recovered each of the last three years, Esquer said.
Though the amount of consumer complaints received has decreased over the years, the top five types of consumer complaints issued in 2007 were exactly the same as in 2006, Esquer said.
Top 10 Consumer Complaints
(From January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2007)
1. Business opportunities
2. Business services (i.e. taxis, talent agents, florists, nanny services, telegrams)
3. Motor vehicle (Used Vehicle Sales)
4. Debt collection
5. Motor vehicle repairs
6. Telemarketing fraud
7. Pay television
8. Prize notification (By Mail Only)
9. Internet auctions
10. Mortgage companies/predatory lending
Reach the reporter at: ryan.calhoun@asu.edu.
