The Internet makes it easy for strangers to contact you with offers that may sound too good to be true. There are many kinds of scams and fraudulent offers that you may see on the web or in email messages. Responding to these offers can be dangerous and may result in identity theft, theft of your money or other crimes against you or your family.

 What are some examples of scams?

• 419 Scams: Also known as "Advance Fee Fraud" schemes, these are scams where you receive a letter from someone claiming to be a high-ranking government official (usually in Africa) who needs your help in transferring millions of dollars out of his country, in exchange for which you will receive a generous cut of the funds. Those who fall for this scam are tricked into paying for customs fees, transaction fees, taxes, etc. Once the scammer has extracted as much money as possible from the victim, he disappears. Read an alert from the Federal Trade Commission on the common "Nigerian" Scam.

• "Phishing" Scams: This variety of scam tries to trick users into revealing details of their private accounts. Usually these scams take the form of e-mails that appear to be an official communication from a company you do business with, such as your bank, eBay, PayPal, etc. The letter will usually instruct you to fill out an online form or visit a certain website and enter your name, password, social security number, etc. in order to verify your account. What the victim doesn't realize is that the website they visit is controlled by the scammer. By filling out the form, they give the scammer all the information he needs to access and control the victim's account.

• Pyramid Schemes.: This scam goes back almost 100 years, but is still victimizing people today. The details of the scam vary, but it usually takes the form of an e-mail containing a list of people. You are instructed to send money to the person at the top of the list (perhaps by "buying" something of dubious worth, like pamphlets), removing that name from the list, adding your name to the bottom of the list, and sending the list to 5-10 of your friends. Within a few weeks, the scammer promises, you'll be at the top of the list and people will send you money.

  The scheme (also called a "Ponzi scheme") is illegal according to the U.S. Postal Service, and unfortunately only serves to make the scammer (and maybe a few other people) rich at the expense of everyone else.

 How can I avoid scams?

• Don't let them fool you. Scammers usually play on greed and fear. Don't be fooled by scams that promise to make you rich with almost no effort on your part. As always, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And don't be tricked into giving up details of your online accounts by messages that imply serious consequences if you don't. Banks and legitimate retailers only need your account details when you come to them on your own (for shopping or online banking). They do not send unsolicited e-mails demanding information from you.

• Don't trust links embedded in email messages. If you believe you have received an official e-mail from a company you do business with and the link you click on appears to take you to a legitimate-looking website, look at the "Address" bar at the top of your browser window. Make sure the URL it displays looks correct for the site you're visiting. Don't be fooled by addresses that are close, but not exactly the same as what you're expecting (for example, the address for CitiBank is www.citibank.com. Don't be fooled by similar addresses like www.citibanknet.com or www.citibank-site.com.) Please note that even checking the Address bar might not always work! There is a known bug in some versions of Internet Explorer that allow a website URL to be spoofed. The safest thing that you can do is to open your browser and manually type in the website that you wish to visit.

  Also, if you're about to enter your password on a site that you're not completely sure is legitimate, try entering an incorrect password to test it. A legitimate site will reject the incorrect password, but a fake site will most likely accept it.

• Do some research. If you suspect that you've received a scam e-mail, do some research to see what others are saying about it. Many financial institutions and retailers have links on their home page alerting their customers to scam e-mails. You can also search for key phrases in your e-mail message on sites like Google or the Urban Legends Reference Pages.

 Where can I find more information about scams and fraud online?

• The FTC's list of Top Ten Dot Cons
• The National Fraud Information Center
• Federal Citizen Information Center - Scams and Frauds
• Secret Service - Advance Fee Fraud (419) Schemes
• SEC - Avoiding Internet Investment Scams