A Twin City area woman who unwittingly helped scammers steal thousands of dollars in cash and electronics is far from the only person taken in by such a con.

In fact, the proliferation of such schemes led the chief U.S. postal inspector to start a new unit earlier this year to deal with global investigations, said Doug Bem, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The service also assigned postal inspectors around the country to act as liaisons with victims, postal foreign inspectors and merchants.

"We have made it a much higher priority this year," said Bem, noting a U.S. postal inspector is based at Interpol and is a liaison with that agency and Europol.

A con artist who contacted the local woman in a work-at-home scheme needed a U.S. address to rip off other people and serve as an intermediary to ship cash and goods to Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The scam was shut down after three months.

Bem said most people taken in by such schemes have no idea their business venture or opportunity is illegal.

The postal inspection service is planning an initiative similar to a public warning campaign related to fake checks seen late this year on TV and at fakechecks.org.

"With the proliferation of Web sites that exist to allow Americans to look for business opportunities and employment via the Internet, the criminals troll those pages just like innocent victims do," Bem said.

Contacts for the scams often come from established networking sites for dating, business opportunities or for items for rent or sale, said Bem, adding that people need to educate themselves before agreeing to take on any business from home.

- Contact established consumer advocacy contacts, such as state consumer protection agencies, the Federal Trade Commission and other Web sites used for posting fraudulent schemes.

"These frauds exist or continue just because the victim believes that they've encountered an opportunity that's too good to be true," Bem said. "And sadly, more often than not, that is the case."

- McLean County Sheriff's detective Cliff Rushing agreed, saying people should try to deal with familiar companies, and they need to call and research the company they think they will be working for.

- People need to consider whether they could become victims of a scam before wiring money overseas, said Postal Inspector Wanda Shipp, of the agency's Chicago office. She said people should contact the inspection service or the Better Business Bureau to find out if a company is legitimate.

- People who think they may have wired money to a con artist need to immediately contact the security department of the company that performed the transaction. The company may be able to stop the transaction if notified quickly enough, said Shipp.

- Those buying merchandise online also need to watch for warning signs that a good deal could be a scam, Rushing said. In the local case, people who lost money sent money orders to a person, not a company, and to a P.O. box, not a physical address, he said.