There are so many people out there who want to help you earn money that you should be rich.

There was that one offer to make over $1,000 per week stuffing envelopes, and if you were to send in $39.95 to learn more, you would have even gotten a free camera complete with film. Wow!

The latest offer arrives via the fax machine and promises you a job that will pay you to go drinking in a bar, as well as for dining out or going to the movies. The second half of that fax says that you can get paid to diet. You can actually earn money to lose weight! You are told that visits to the health club or gym are not necessary.

It would seem that these two offers are ideal – go out, eat, drink, and be merry, and then eat free diet food and lose all the weight gained from the original activities.

Are you waiting for the rest of the story?

To get more information on either of these offers, you have to reply on the fax machine and have the details faxed back to you. The cost, they claim, is $2.95 per minute. There is no indication of what will actually be sent, other than a statement that the report is three pages long. How long will the transaction take? There is no indication.

However there is a defense – common sense. Remember that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.