Enlarge Terry Yeast filed complaints with the FTC, the BBB and the federal Internet Crime Complaint Center. TIPS FOR CONSUMERS TIPS FOR CONSUMERS WORK-AT-HOME SCHEMES: Examples of work-at-home schemes to avoid PROTECT YOURSELF: At-home medical billing job scams WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Things to watch out for in ads for job hunting firms WHERE ARE THE JOBS? WHERE ARE THE JOBS? FORECASTS FOR REBOUND: Map shows the latest outlook for all 50 states and 384 metro areas, by job sectors. LOOKING FOR A JOB?: Try our Quick Job Search widget powered by CareerBuilder. JOB SEARCH HELP: Videos from career counselors provide advice Work-at-home opportunities were supposed to help Chester Mazzoni, Susan Reid and Terry Yeast make ends meet. The only one who made money was Mazzoni — and that stopped when a court-appointed receiver shut him down. He used a work-at-home medical billing scam, EDI Healthclaims Network, to help fund his other businesses by persuading thousands of people to pay up to $6,000 for training and materials to start allegedly lucrative businesses. Consumers got neither the clients nor the money they were promised, the FTC says. Last month, Mazzoni pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to criminal charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud related to the work-at-home scheme. He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced in August. RED FLAGS: How to avoid being scammed Reid, who can't work outside the home because she cares for her terminally ill father, paid $1.95 to learn how to make money online. Then she was charged another $49.95 but never received anything for the money. Reid is one of more than a dozen people scammed by a company that goes by the names Search Profit System and Money Mastery, the Better Business Bureau says. Terry Yeast, who suffers from debilitating arthritis and has two disabled children, decided to try working at home after her husband got laid off from his welding job. She was already making crafts in a basement studio when she saw information online about Darling Angel Pins. The company said individuals could earn up to $500 a week by making the pins at home. Yeast sent in nearly $600 to register and purchase supplies, but when she sent in her pins, the company always rejected them, citing quality problems. Work-at-home scams have been around for decades, but the economic downturn has given them a new urgency for both businesses and the unemployed. While some work-at-home offers, such as home-based customer service agents, can be legitimate, the FTC and consumer advocates say most that promise generous profits from the comfort of home are not. Complaints to the FTC about work-at-home scams are increasing faster than fraud complaints overall, up from 4,004 in 2006 to 7,955 last year. RECOVERY WATCH: Tracking the economy JOBS OUTLOOK: Latest data for all states, 384 metros Implausible offers are flourishing. There have also been big changes in how they're advertised, largely online. Scam artists know that many people are aware that work-at-home opportunities are often questionable, so the most egregious frauds "advertise that they are 100% scam-free," says Lois Greisman, the FTC's associate director of marketing practices. "With unemployment hovering around 10%, more people are susceptible," says Greisman, noting that the FTC is going after those "targeting people in dire need." The Internet has also allowed scam artists to move beyond more mundane envelope-stuffing and home assembly scams. "What we see now is people paying for information to learn how to make money on the Internet," says Better Business Bureau spokeswoman Alison Southwick. "The downturn in the economy provides a lot of great opportunities for scammers to take advantage of a lot of people who are vulnerable." Southwick says one of the more common Internet schemes offers consumers the opportunity to sell Google ads, but recently she's also seen scams that claim to teach consumers how to make money from Twitter and other social-networking tools. Preying on the vulnerable Reid and her husband, Brian, a disabled veteran who has been unemployed since 1999, researched Search Profit System only after their debit card had been charged an additional $49.95. "We figured this may not be so bad, and if we lose anything, it's only going to be $1.95," says Brian Reid. When they did their research, the couple found numerous complaints about Search Profit System and Money Mastery, another name the company used. On the company's website, which uses both the Search Profit System and Money Mastery logo, Reid noticed in very small print that those who don't cancel their subscriptions within 24 hours would be charged $49.95. Reid says it took several calls to get his refund a month later, so he filed a complaint with the BBB. Alan Williams, chief executive manager of Money Mastery, says his company licensed Mars Hill Media to sell his products. But once he found out about the company's tactics — such as setting up the Search Profit System website — he ended Money Mastery's licensing agreement with Mars Hill Media. "They had an obligation to operate legally and ethically and take care of the clients and all of that," he says. But Jane Diggs of the Utah BBB says Money Mastery was complicit in the scheme. "Obviously, Money Mastery knew about it and could've stopped those kinds of sales," she says. Messages left for Mars Hill Media were not returned. Rosalind Jones, an administrative assistant in New York, was charged another $149.95 by Search Profit after she paid $1.95. Jones says she'll never fall for a work-at-home scam again. "I said, 'Wait a minute, you're giving in more than you're actually making,' " she says. "Why should I have to give you money to make money?" And that, says the FTC, is a key tip-off that a work-at-home offer might be a scam. "One of the biggest red flags is requiring an upfront payment," says the FTC's Greisman. When her disabled mother also paid nearly $600 to Angel Pin Creations and failed to sell any pins back to the company, Yeast filed a complaint with the FTC, the BBB and the federal Internet Crime Complaint Center. After the company was contacted by the BBB, Yeast got a check for $29.80 from the company. Her complaint led to an FTC investigation and lawsuit filed last February. After a court granted a temporary restraining order and asset freeze requested by the FTC, the company shut down. Company officials could not be reached for comment. In a sworn statement filed for the FTC's case, Yeast wrote, "Every time I walk into my craft studio, I see all the Angel Pin supplies, and my heart drops to the floor." She noted her family could have used the money "to pay next month's mortgage." "When I discovered that they had been in business since 1986, and they had been able to defraud so many people for so long, I had to do something," says Yeast, who is working a temporary accounting job that ends Thursday. "I lost the rest of my savings that I thought I was going to turn into an income for my family." Funding other businesses Mazzoni used his work-at-home scam to keep four businesses, including a frozen-drink franchise company called Breeze Freeze, afloat, the FTC says. The Livonia, Mich., businessman, who did not return calls seeking comment, told Crain's Detroit Business in 2005 that he invested more than $2 million in Breeze Freeze over the previous two years for equipment and a new headquarters. From 1997 to 2006, Mazzoni and Leo Lepo, an officer of EDI, told consumers that EDI Healthclaims Network would help them set up a medical billing business after they paid a "licensing fee" of $4,985 to $5,985, the FTC said in its lawsuit. Consumers, who were promised they would earn at least $1,200 a month, often made nothing and lost their upfront fee, according to the FTC's lawsuit. Company representatives also presented themselves as satisfied customers when consumers asked questions, the FTC said. The FTC obtained a judgment against Mazzoni and others for more than $17 million in 2008, according to the U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern District of Ohio. But Mazzoni declared bankruptcy after the FTC filed its lawsuit in 2006, and the government was able to recover only $50,000 from EDI or its related companies to distribute to consumers who were victimized by the scheme. After more assets were turned over, an administrator working for the FTC last month was able to send checks totaling $95,000 to 3,500 people defrauded by the scam. "Thousands of innocent consumers have already paid the price for the alleged fraud described in today's charges," U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said when he announced the mail fraud charges in April. "Now, perhaps, those who perpetrated (the) fraud will pay a price at long last." EDI victim Noel Tufele-Jones of Wichita recently received a $29 check as part of the restitution. It was a small token given the $5,900 she invested in EDI in the early 2000s. Tufele-Jones says she drove from Kansas to Michigan for EDI training, which was in such a run-down building and so cursory that she immediately suspected fraud. Worse yet, the salesman who persuaded her to sign up told her she'd be supplied with a list of clients, but Mazzoni told her at the training that it wasn't true, she says. "It was like a nightmare," says Tufele-Jones. "I'm still struggling, but even more so with that setback." Mazzoni's is but one of a rash of medical billing scams pitched in recent years. Those who respond to such pitches rarely find clients or make any money, much less the earnings they are promised in the promotions, says the FTC. Even if the medical billing deals weren't scams, the FTC says there's barely a market for small start-up billing companies because many doctors' offices process their own medical claims. Those that don't typically contract out their medical billing to established firms, not people working out of their homes. "We find the scam artists follow the headlines and count on victims knowing a little bit about what they're offering," say Jon Steiger, the FTC's regional director for the East Central region. "With the changes in health care, we will see more of these frauds." Christine Frietchen, editor in chief of the blog ConsumerSearch, which reviews products and services, says not all work-at-home deals should be written off. While, she says, "home assembly and stuffing envelopes is a total and complete scam," and "mystery shopping is a mixed bag," home-based customer service agent pitches are typically "the real deal." The jobs, when advertised by major companies, involve taking orders, answering questions and fixing shipping problems. And anyone with "a clean record, a good head, moderate computer skills and a quiet place to work can do it," Frietchen says. "Some of these work-at-home schemes can be really positive, and it is possible with careful research to eke out a pretty decent side business," Frietchen says. "But just like people have been advising us for years, there's no easy answer and no get-rich-quick" guarantees. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more