Most of us know not to ever buy anything on the Internet from Ghana, and forget about the nubile Nigerian prince with his hand out in the name of Jesus Christ, but who is getting duped by energy con artists? Evidently, the folks in Atlanta, Ga. are concerned. Here is an excerpt from something that crossed my screen.

“Con artists selling energy saving devices and services are turning up the heat to persuade consumers to buy into their gadget bag of hot air. As consumers seek ways to save on their overall energy bills and conserve energy, scam artists are prowling the Internet, airwaves and print ads trying to convince homeowners that they can save big money on energy bills.

“Even legitimate companies are selling big energy savings, but at very big prices. For example, legitimate home improvement firms can indeed save homeowners money in terms of conserving energy; … the pay back on many of these could take 20 years or more. "

It had to happen, the energy efficiency scammers are coming out of the woodwork, and it may be dragging down some good business opportunities for legitimate contractors.

According to some, the best way to avoid the scammers and still take advantage of energy savings is to simply turn down the thermostat a few degrees and turn off appliances, lights, and other devices not in use.

That’s not terribly bad advice, but there really is so much more to be had, if only the consumers knew. It’s tough enough for most contractors to upgrade customers to high-efficiency products during tight economic times, but add green haze to their increasingly skeptical minds, and they may just choose to go into shutdown mode.

Let’s do our best to keep the green haze to a minimum. It’s already a jungle out there.