(FORTUNE Magazine) – DEAR ANNIE: Like lots of other people, I've always fantasized about owning my own business. My question is, What about all those offers one gets over the Internet, where supposedly all you have to do is buy something online--usually downloadable information--and sell it to other people, who then do the same? This seems too good to be true, but the way e-commerce has been growing makes the idea a little more convincing. Do these get-rich-working-from-home businesses really deliver what they promise, or are they just scams? ENTREPRENEUR WANNABE

DEAR E.W.: Funny you should ask. I get about two dozen of those offers a week myself, and a few of them have really piqued my curiosity. And we're by no means unique. A new survey of 13,000 e-mail users by the Gartner Group found that get-rich-quick pitches account for some 40% of all spam (even beating out invitations to, um, adults-only sites, which make up roughly 25% of junk e-mail).

But beware. In too many cases, online "business opportunities" are a terrific profit machine--but only for the outfit (or the lone opportunist) sending out the offers. Explains Web expert Michael Banks: "Most 'opportunities' presented via e-mail are frauds. These hucksters are playing the odds. They send junk solicitations to 100,000 e-mail addresses and figure they'll get one-tenth of 1% return--which is to say, 100 victims sending money. Don't be one of them." Banks' website, w3.one.net/~banks/webscam.htm, lists six ways to identify a bogus online business deal.

Indeed, e-mail business schemes are proliferating so rapidly that several consumer-advocacy groups, and the Federal Trade Commission, have set up sites loaded with tips and warnings on how not to get ripped off. Three good ones: www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/netalrt.htm--an FTC Consumer Alert that details how to spot Net-based "flop-portunities"; www.emich.edu/public/coe/nice/fraudrl. html--a wealth of information and resources from the National Institute for Consumer Education at Eastern Michigan University; and www.fraud.org/internet/inttip/inttip.html--Internet Fraud Watch, backed by the National Fraud Information Center, which also operates a hotline at 800-876-7060.

Andrew Whinston, director of the Center for Research on Electronic Commerce at the University of Texas at Austin, agrees with you that the growth of e-commerce--173% a year, according to CREC's figures, vs. just 4% for the economy overall--tends to lend credibility to some folks who, well, just don't deserve it. Whinston suggests that you ask yourself: Why are these people coming to me for money? With venture capital investments hitting all-time highs--$4.3 billion in the first quarter of this year in the U.S. alone, reports PricewaterhouseCoopers --"almost any legitimate business venture can get capital with ease. So why can't these people?" Or as Michael Banks says, if you insist on defying the odds and buying into an online business, "don't quit your day job."

DEAR ANNIE: I am tired. I am a chartered accountant from India, with 12 years' experience in all aspects of my field, now visiting the U.S. I am being turned down by all prospective employers once they learn that I need sponsorship for an H1B visa to work here. How can I get a company to sponsor me? RAJIV

DEAR RAJIV: Your reluctant--okay, nonexistent--sponsors really owe you an explanation, and it is one that seems, on the face of it, pretty simple: For the moment, that train has already left the station. In 1998, Congress temporarily raised the number of H1B visas available for 1999 and 2000, from 65,000 to 115,000, and the 115,000-visa limit for this year was reached on June 15. You can apply again on or after Oct. 1, when the Immigration and Naturalization Service will begin issuing visas for next year. Being Indian certainly won't hinder you. In the first half of 1999, 46% of all H1B visas went to workers from India, almost five times the number that went to the nearest runner-up (China, with 10%). Your occupation, however, might present a problem. While they might not be willing to admit it to you, many employers--who would rather not deal with the INS bureaucracy at all, unless they absolutely must--are reserving their H1B-sponsorship energies for importing more techies.