If it sounds too good to be true....

Do I even have to finish that thought?

Grandma was right when she told you that if it sounds too good to be true then it probably isn't. That might be the case with these signs that you may be seeing springing up around town. They say that if you rent out your home during the upcoming MLB All-Star game in St. Louis this July you can earn up to $5,000 a day.

I called the number on the sign earlier this week. I told the receptionist at the Phoenix-based company (although I'm not sure if the receptionist was actually in Phoenix...you know how things work these days...she could have been in Australia for all I know) that I was a reporter and I was interested in doing a story on this company. I had no idea if the company was legitimate or not. I was just checking it out. That was on Monday. I never heard back from them throughout the week. That seems kind of odd to me. If I'm an out-of-town businessman and I'm trying to get the word out about my company then I would think that a news story explaining what I do would be welcome. Again, no return call from the company. Nothing.

Fast-forward to today. When we were at our afternoon meeting going over possible news stories for the day I brought up the idea again because I'd been seeing the signs around town. A producer in the room said she was familiar with the company because the Better Business Bureau had put out a warning. The BBB says the company has ties to another company that was operating in Florida during the Super Bowl. People who wanted to rent out their homes were paying about $1,100 to the company upfront to have a photographer come to their house to shoot pictures to put on a "virtual tour" on the company's website. The BBB will tell you this---any time you have to pay large amounts of money up front bells should go off in your head, red flags should wave before your eyes, the "tilt" sign should light up on that internal pinball machine you have in your brain.

The BBB says people in Florida were paying their money, they were told if their homes were not rented out they would get a full refund and then, son-of-a-gun who'd a thunk it, their homes were not rented out and they were having a hard time getting in touch with the company and couldn't get their money back.

Remember Grandma's warning. Make her proud.

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