A description of the scope of telemarketing fraud notes that consumers lose $250,000 each hour to telemarketing scams. In profiling types of telemarketing scams, the video interviews an Ohio investigator with the Better Business Bureau, who describes a "boiler room" telephone operation that falsely used the name of the Special Olympics to con people out of their money. The video then describes some of the ways in which scam operators obtain the telephone numbers of persons in target groups. This includes special phone lists compiled according to demographic characteristics of residents and the trading of "sucker" phone lists among scam operators. Other telemarketing scams profiled include the "travel scam," which involves promises of free trips and vacations that carry hidden costs; art scams, which sell art as an investment for more than its worth; and oil and gas scams. Some general preventive warnings are not to buy from telephone callers you do not know; do not give your credit card number over the phone; do not purchase or invest immediately without conducting a background check on the caller; and ask for and verify information from the caller. Certain "red flag" words used by fraudulent telemarketers are listed.