Telemarketing fraud is fraudulent selling conducted over the phone. It most often targets the poor and elderly. Common types include:

• Advance fee fraud (typically claiming that the victim will receive a lottery prize, government grant or loan, etc)
• Pyramid schemes and other misrepresented investments or business opportunities
• Overpayment fraud (where the victim is overpaid for a classified advertising or online auction purchase, with a counterfeit check or money order, and asked to wire back some of the excess)
• Charity fraud
• Misrepresented office supplies (most commonly toner) or directory listing services

Advance fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance relatively small sums of money in the hope of realizing a much larger gain. ... A lottery is a popular form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize. ... A loan is a type of debt. ... The unsustainable geometric progression of a classic pyramid scheme A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually without any product or service being delivered. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The online auction business model is one in which participants bid for products and services over the internet. ... Charity fraud is the act of using deception to get money from people who are making donations to charities. ... Office Supply is a New Wave band consisting of three members. ... A colour toner bottle Toner is a powder used in laser printers and photocopiers which forms the text and images on the printed paper. ... In computing, a directory, catalog, or folder, is an entity in a file system which contains a group of files and other directories. ...

References

• Competition Bureau of Canada and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (2006). PhoneBusters: Recognize It.
• United States Department of Justice (1998). What Kinds Of Telemarketing Schemes Are Out There?.