I have a post up on the Official Google Blog: How to steer clear of money scams.
These get-rich-quick schemes are all over the place. They take advantage of the Google brand and the large number of people who are out of work now and looking for new opportunities. Read the article for more info but in general, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
The opening paragraph is a true story – so thanks mom, for asking about this an prompting me to look into this further.