The constant drumbeat of bad economic news may lead to another trend: an increase in small business start-ups.

As people struggle to find the money to pay for higher mortgage costs, rising energy and gasoline bills and climbing prices at the supermarket, many will be enticed by small business opportunities.

But in your quest to become an entrepreneur, don’t get suckered into a deal that will just make someone else money. Be careful about falling for a bogus business scam. And just as important, scrutinize legitimate prepackaged small business opportunities that sound good but often don’t deliver the promised income.

Small business opportunity scams and businesses in a box, as I call them, have grown in part because of the decline of traditional job security and the large number of people who have lost their jobs, the Federal Trade Commission reports.

“We find that typically business opportunity victims want to work hard to supplement their income … but what they don’t do is go and see the business opportunity in action,” says Lisa Hone, assistant director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

People see these entrepreneur opportunities as a way to prosperity. However, to fund the operations, they often take out home equity loans, deplete their savings or raid college or retirement funds. If they aren’t careful, their entrepreneurial endeavor could put them further in debt, said LaShawn Johnson, staff attorney in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Johnson said she interviewed one couple who got involved in a fake coffee business. To fund the enterprise, they raided their 401(k) plan and used other savings. They lost $30,000 and ended up getting a divorce.

“People really need to look before they leap,” Johnson said. “They really need to talk to people other than the person they get the pitch from.”

Last summer, the FTC forced one company to give back $122,000 to consumers who invested anywhere from $7,000 to $59,000 in a candy vending machine business. The FTC said the operation lured consumers by falsely promising big incomes and prime locations for the machines. The company paid people to reinforce its earnings claims. The company advertised that people could make $1,710 per week.

In another scheme that the FTC shut down last year, people were told they could earn as much as $65,000 a year in a greeting card operation. For an investment of $8,500 or more, would-be small entrepreneurs were told they would receive a prepackaged business that included an inventory of greeting cards, display racks and profitable locations.

The FTC said consumers never earned anything close to the $65,000 a year. In almost every case, people made less than $100 a month. The highest earning entrepreneur made a little more than $2,000 for an entire year at 20 locations.

Before signing up for a business opportunity, check out this Web site: www.business.gov/guides/

franchises. The site is managed by the U.S. Small Business Administration in a partnership with 21 other federal agencies. Also go to www.ftc.gov, where you will find lots of cautionary information about bogus and legitimate small business opportunities.

Johnson of the FTC said that before you invest a penny in a business, get all information about earnings potential in writing.