Scams and swindles are on the uprise due to the economy.  Everyone's seeking ways to generate income.  Some are willing to practice unethical behaviors in order to stay afloat.   How can you tell what's a swindle and what's real?  This is the question posed recently to Marilyn of "Ask Marilyn."  Her response is the most straightforward and clear explaination.  She said:

"People who lose money to scammers aren't always at fault.  Here's a scheme that would be difficult for someone to spot in advance.

Let's say a financial con artist tells 1000 potential clients that a particular stock will go up on a given day.  He tells 1000 others that the same stock will go down.

Say the stock goes up.  The man focuses on the first 1000 people, as they think he got it right.  He then chooses a different stock and tells 500 of them the stock will go up.  He tells the other 500 it will go down.  No matter what the stock does, 500 possible clients think he got it right again.  So after repeating this a few times, the fellow winds up with a list of people convinced he has predictive powers - and ready to give him their life savings.

While this ruse isn't a pyramid scheme, it does illustrate how easy it is to concoct ways to trick people by preying on their wishful thinking."

A recent "ask Yvonne" question for my newsletter http://www.yvonnefbrown.com was from a woman who was duped into investing in a coaching program at a 'millionaire' seminar.  I also learned from an acquaintance that she was also scammed by a coaching program while attending a separate event.  These two stories are a reminder that we should be careful who we trust because like the financial con artist mentioned above, not everything is as it seems on first glance.

Beware while traveling and renting cars.  Be sure to read the full receipt and check in advance to ensure this does not happen to you.  I noticed some of these charges recently and believe me they're buried.

The following article by By Christopher Elliott cites some of these insidious charges.

Look out for cancellation penalties. Beware of energy surcharges. And watch for facilities fees. 

To get an idea of how absurd it’s becoming, meet Jim Swofford. He found a mysterious $5 fee on his Hertz bill recently, which a representative described as a cancellation fee. Car rental companies typically don’t charge their customers for cancellations, so Swofford, who frequently rents from Hertz, said he didn’t want another car he’d reserved for later.

“That’ll be $25,” the agent told him.

“So I jokingly said I would not cancel but just be a no-show,” he remembers. “She said that would result in a $50 fee.”

Or talk to Eric Hegwer, a photographer from Austin, Texas, who spotted a $1 “energy surcharge” on his Hertz car rental bill recently. “My previous rentals didn’t have one,” he says.

I asked Hertz about the two new surcharges. Company spokeswoman Paula Rivera told me the cancellation fee, which was added in December, applied only to prepaid reservations and is meant to “reimburse Hertz for the paperwork and billing involved with a prepaid reservation.” The fee also covers part of the company’s cost of holding vehicles for prepaid reservations. The energy surcharge, which was added in October, bills all rentals in most states an additional $1 a day “to offset the increasing costs of utilities, bus fuel, oil and grease,” she said.

How to stay ahead of these extras? Knowing is half the battle. Here are five of the newer charges that could sideswipe you on your next trip.

A fee for something you’ve already paid for
This is one of the more creative new ways of separating you from your money: charging you twice for the same thing. “Three times now, with three different companies, they have tried to charge me for gas when I’ve returned the car with a full tank and claimed it was an honest mistake,” says Sid Savara, a software engineer in Oahu, Hawaii. “It leads me to suspect they are just tacking the fee on and most people aren’t noticing or complaining about it.”

Boston-based author John DiPietro brought his own E-ZPass toll transponder when he rented a car in Massachusetts recently, but Budget billed him for the toll roads anyway. “We’re still trying to resolve it,” he told me.

Now more than ever, it’s important to be on the lookout for duplicate charges on your rental bill.

A fee for something that should come with the car
Such as tires. Enterprise recently charged one of Edgar Dworsky’s readers a $2 “tire fee.” 

Surcharge on surcharges
Scott Lerman found a “privilege fee” on his last car rental in Florida, which applied to rentals picked up within 48 hours of flight arrival. “Never seen anything like it,” says the Livingston, N.J.-based freelance publicist. (The fee covers the costs of operating an off-airport location.)

Seth Mendelsohn, the president of a food store in Boulder, Colo., found a $4 “downtown arena” fee on his bill when he visited Kansas City recently. “Apparently the city is trying to pay for part of the Sprint Center through car rental fees,” he told me.

Most of these fees can be avoided by pre-paying for your car through one of the “opaque” travel sites such as Hotwire.com or Priceline.com, or by buying through an online travel agency that guarantees its rates

Read the full story here.    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30033404/