Where so you turn a company in for fraudulent practices?

[redpeach_mi]

In our local newpaper today, there was a classified ad looking for a babysitter. This is what is said:

Looking for babysitter in the Salina are immediately. Pays $700/week. 678-318-1498

Seemed like a huge amount of money and a huge opportunity for just watching some children, so I called. There is a voice message saying to go to wonderfulnanny.com. I went to the site and before you can even apply, you have to pay a $10 non-refundable fee for them to process your application. Seems like a small amount of money to pay to be considered for such a high paying job. Then it donned on me. It's a scam. $10 is not a sum of money that people would get worked up about it they were scammed, but yet it's just little enough that if it might be an actual job, that they would pay it. Website looked professinal enough. Can you imagine how much money these people are making? If you have 300 people in one city apply for this job, they make $3000!
I checked with the Better Business Bureau and they are not a upstanding company. What they are doing has to be illegal and the BBB first was contacted about them in 2002. Which means they have been doing this for 5 years now. So who do you report to to get them caught? The money goes to a Paypal account so there has to be account information that would be traceable to someone. Anyone have any ideas?

[Alias Smith & Jones]

Glad you were wise enough to see the scam.

Since it IS a crime we're talking about, maybe you should call the police. Find the non-emergency number, though.

[starrrrgazer]

Contact their web host and paypal. However, I doubt if it's illegal as long as they are offering jobs on the other end.

[bottleblondemama]

If you paid the $10 fee, file a complaint with the newspaper the ad was published in, Paypal and BBB.

If you didn't, file a complaint with the BBB, Attorney General for the State where you reside and the FTC. All have online complaint forms.

If enough people complain, sooner or later (in this case, later) the FTC or State Attorney General will take action against the company. Filing a complaint with the BBB keep the record fresh that they are still "unsatisfactory".