Don't get taken trying to 'get rich quick'

Beware of anyone trying to sell you investments over the phone. 

People have already lost hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to get rich quick.

U.S. Postal Inspector Al Herzog says, "This company told victims that one day it would be larger than Home Depot."

That was the hook that led investors to give more than half a million dollars to a home maintenance business.

"They would sign a contract with you and promise to do all of your home maintenance through out the year. That would include raking the leaves, shoveling your driveway, washing your window."

It was just the beginning.

"Some of the things people were promised was doing incredibly well financially - when in fact - the company was losing money on a daily basis."

Which eventually led the company to go out of business.

"So when investors went to get their money back there was nothing left to give them."

Victims were sent stock certificates in the mail that were "worthless." They had never been registered with the
Securities Exchange Commission.

Inspectors say it is so important for consumers to do their homework.

"In this case if they would have done an Internet research on one of the defendants they would have learned that he served a prison sentence in the 1990s for doing the exact same thing."

Both defendants in this case were sentenced to time in federal prison and ordered to pay a combined restitution of almost $2 million.