Common e-mail scams

Besides phishing scams, which use e-mail to try to get your financial account information to steal from you, there are other kinds of e-mail scams. Many of these are engineered to try to get you to click on a link or open an attachment which will then cause malware (spyware, keystroke tracking programs and the like) to be downloaded to your computer. Some e-mail scams also convince you to forward the e-mail to others, thereby spreading the dangerous link and malware.

Here are some of the e-mail scams in circulation:

A 'timely' warning. These almost always want you to do something—for example, keep your cell phone number off of telemarketer lists, forward the e-mail on to help even more people (like a warning about a new virus that is circulating and destroying computers), or stop (or start) taking a wonder remedy.

Desperate requests for help. These types of e-mail scams are particularly common after disasters. Since there is always a disaster somewhere in the world, these scams are always in circulation. They may also take the form of an individual disaster, usually involving someone with a terminal illness who can't afford a lifesaving treatment. These will probably lead you to a Web site where you can donate to the cause. Not only is the e-mail a con job, people who give money through the Web site have almost certainly "donated" their credit card information to identity thieves.

Offers of free money. No stranger is going to give you free money. Yet a remarkable number of people hope they will. These scams, luring you into clicking a dangerous link, come in a few flavors, such as:

• Unclaimed money owed to you. These e-mails lead you to a Web site or phone number where you'll be asked to give information about yourself to claim all the money owed to you.

• A rich person or company wants to give you money or prizes. They don’t, and they certainly wouldn’t notify you through a random email.

An intriguing picture or video or a link to an interesting Web site. These links in e-mail messages may be entirely benign, or very dangerous. Clicking on them may download viruses or other malicious software to your computer. If you know and trust the sender, you may decide to click a link, but if you're unsure of the source, don't click any links in a message.

Click here if you wish to learn more about how to dissect an e-mail scam.

How to dissect an e-mail scam

E-mail scams are typically low value, high volume crimes where the cost to a given consumer is comparatively low, but the high number of victims makes the money quickly add up for the criminals behind the scam.

Scammers and other criminals study human behavior and motivations. They know people are much more likely to fall for a scam related to a topic of interest, holiday, event, or worry already on their minds. Things like last minute sales before a holiday; bank loans in credit crunches, or cheaper loans at any time; official looking notices such as tax notices in tax season; or discount drugs for seniors are popular as topics for scam.

Though there are a thousand flavors of e-mail scams, the methods of detection are fairly straightforward. Here are five common types of scams and the clues you can use to spot them.

After reviewing these, you will have learned the skills you need to identify most e-mail scams on your own.

1) The Imitator