We contacted Julie Senter, Director of Public Affairs & Communications for the Building Industry Association of Southern California, and forwarded her the e-mail in question.

According to Julie, it turns out scammers managed to misappropriate an online form Dream Team members use to forward information about the program to friends. They then added a personal note at the top and used a computer to auto-generate it in 99-person batches during the middle of the night for two nights running. While the organization is still tallying how many e-mails were sent, they pulled the form down yesterday and will re-post it today with a security feature that forces users to prove they’re human.

Julie also had this to say about the incident:

This has been an eye-opener for us. The fact that someone could so easily take our good name and our legitimate e-mail and use that for their own illegal purposes is alarming. What’s more, we would never even have known we were victims of this illegal scheme if someone hadn’t been kind enough to forward the email to us.

Will it affect whether someone trusts material coming from the American Dream Team in the future? We hope not. But if someone received this scam and blacklisted our IP address, they won’t receive our legitimate e-mails. That could have a lasting impact and force housing advocates to miss out on opportunities to support our cause. We’re looking into how these scammers were able to get our email in the first place so that we can add some security features to our website and prevent it from happening again. We would encourage other nonprofits and trade associations to do the same.

We'd like to underscore Julie's point and remind readers not to automatically assume any e-mail from or about the American Dream Team (www.theamericandreamteam.org) is fraudulent. However, if you do get an American Dream Team-related e-mail preceded by an outlandish come-on identical to the one above, delete it immediately.

Why? Frankly, the red flags are so numerous it's hard to know where to begin. When we looked the site up on WHOIS, we learned the domain "0fees.net" is registered to someone in Kaunas, Lithuania. While we have nothing against Lithuania, it's long been a source of online fraud. And clicking on the "buy now" button on the site itself (just $16 for a "Once in a Lifetime Opportunity") takes you to a PayPal page that defaults to the Philippines. Hmmmm.

Also, when we tried to visit http://emong101.0fees.net/promail (which is unlinked for your own safety--DO NOT try to visit this site, since it will try to install a worm on your machine!), we were alerted by McAfee SiteAdvisor, which flagged the site with a big red X. According to McAfee, "In our tests, we found downloads on this site that some people consider adware, spyware or other potentially unwanted programs," programs which include a trojan.

How about the site itself? The introductory spiel says it all: "Dear Webpreneurs, Congratulations! You’re about to change your life for the better. Take a look and read some of the info's that I am presenting to you. If you are serious and motivated like I am, this is your Once in a lifetime Opportunity! Start Your Own Money Making Job Immediately! This is not a Pyramid or MLM Program." Yeah, right.

The banner ad above should also give you a pretty clear idea of what you're not missing. Otherwise, the familiar trappings of your standard work-at-home scam are all present and accounted for:

-Lack of any contact information beyond an e-mail address? Check.
-Failure to publish a privacy policy? Check.
-No indication whatsoever as to who own or runs the site? Check.
-Scads of ludicrous claims of easy money from the comfort of your home? Check.
-Amateurish, "site in a box" design? Check.
-No experience required? Check.
-Guaranteed income? Check.
-Once in a lifetime opportunity? Check.
-Phony testimonials? Check.
-Fake seal of approval? Check.

As for the fake seal of approval, it's a "five star trusted site" from something called the "Web Trade Bureau," but that's a story in itself, which we'll save for a follow-up post.