A Franklin woman lost more than $70 a year ago in a work-from-home scheme that didn’t live up to its &#8220money back” guarantee.

Tabitha Boyer had called a toll-free number about a data processing position about a year ago from an ad in the Franklin Favorite newspaper, she said. The company said it guaranteed its product.

&#8220I called the company and they said I would have to pay $72 for their equipment to work from home,” Boyer said. &#8220When I received it, all there was a floppy disk with some addresses for Bowling Green businesses to send resumes. There wasn’t anything included about working from home.”

She sent applications to the companies listed on the disk and those she heard from said they weren’t hiring and didn’t know about any data processing positions, she said.

&#8220When I called about the money-back guarantee, their phone had been disconnected,” Boyer said.

Then just a few days ago, Boyer called a local number for data processing jobs she saw in an ad in the Daily News.

&#8220I thought I was being cautious because it had a local number,” she said.

But calling the local number led to a recording forwarding the caller to a toll-free phone number, Boyer said.

&#8220I called and then a woman got on the phone and started talking to me. I told her I thought I had done this before and she hung up,” Boyer said.

They were scams, she said.

&#8220I hope that somebody else will be able to learn from my experiences,” Boyer said.

About 200 to 300 people in southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee call about these type of work-at-home schemes every month, said Linda Chambers of the Bowling Green Better Business Bureau. The Louisville office alone receives 25 calls a week about the legitimacy of these companies, she said.

&#8220I wish they would take these things out of the newspapers,” she said. &#8220Every newspaper has one every single day.”

The Daily News does run work-at-home advertisements in its classified section.

&#8220We don’t have the resources to check the legitimacy of each ad,” Daily News General Manager Mark Van Patten said.

Van Patten said the newspaper would pull the ad that Boyer read.

The companies offering a chance to work-at-home charge people between $40 and $300 for information they could get free in other locations, Chambers said.

There’s one that talks about how to apply for millions of dollars in grants. But those are basically scholarships and are the same lists of scholarships school counselors have that are available free on the U.S. government Web page, she said.

&#8220People should think if it’s really that easy to make $2,000 a week working from home, wouldn’t everybody be doing it?” Chambers said. &#8220Ninety-nine percent of these work-at-home companies are scams, if not 100 percent.”

The Better Business Bureau recommends a few precautions to avoid these types of scams. Stay away from companies that appear to advertise overstated claims of product effectiveness; exaggerated claims of potential earnings, profits or part-time earnings; claims of &#8220inside” information; requirements of money for instructions or products before telling you how the plan works; and claims of &#8220no experience necessary.”

Anyone who has responded to one of these ads can call the Better Business Bureau at 781-8445 and report the company. Outside Warren County, call (800) 388-2222.

Van Patten said people should check with the Better Business Bureau about any company before they respond to an ad.

– More information about work-from-home schemes is available at the Better Business Bureau Web site, at http://www.bbb.org/alerts/Scam.asp