Financial scams on the Web, part 2

The Internet is a terrific tool that allows many of us to conduct business and shopping from our homes or offices without having to go somewhere to do so. The Internet a great place to shop, bank or sell, but it is turning out to be more and more dangerous each and every day as crooks come up with consistently more clever ways to fool us into revealing our personal information to them.

Listed below are some additional scams to avoid while using the Internet:

• Debt reduction offers - Don't attempt to resolve the mess by answering e-mail messages from someone you do not know. Electronic mail proposals that promise to wipe out your outstanding debt, or consolidate your debts are almost always scams. If you actually have a debt problem, seek out an experienced credit counseling company. While it is possible to apply for a loan to consolidate debt or create a debt repayment strategy with your creditors, a debtor can seldom resolve such problems by replying to unrequested e-mail. Debt consolidation scams merely want you to pay them cash to apply for their "system", whatever it is, and they really just want your money. If you pay by bank card, debt scammers may use the charge card to take your identity, which might make your already bad monetary situation worse.

• Foreign Lottery - Opportunists send out e-mail notifying the recipient that they have won thousands of dollars in a foreign lottery and extend a contact phone number so that the recipient can obtain their winnings. E-mail notices that offer lottery prizes are common. The foreign lottery scheme requires the would be victim to send a fee to compensate for "processing" for their winnings in some foreign sweepstakes, but if the would be victim sends the payment, the prize never arrives. Any messages promising winnings from foreign lotteries must always be avoided, as it is illegal for Americans to enter other country's lotteries. 
• Drugs - Crooks send out billions of e-mail messages every day offering discounted Viagra, Cialis, or any one of a number of additional name brand pharmaceutical products. Smart shoppers will know not to buy drugs from strangers who send them e-mail and that offering your credit card number to people that you do not know can result in identity theft. There may be honest organizations that provide drugs over the Internet using unsolicited electronic mail as advertising, but wise Americans will stay away from such things. Pharmaceutical schemes are among the most popular on the Internet. This common crime works because people do respond to it, as drugs are expensive.
• Get Rich Quick Schemes - Offers to earn a lot of cash very fast are quite prominent on the World Wide Web and these products regularly work their way into the inbox of potential victims via e-mail. One prominent money making scheme involves selling a book for $100 that will tell you the secret of earning $1000 every day. Internet surfers who buy into this come to find that the "key" is to write a book about how to make money and sell it.

Be aware, no one ever got hurt by exercising caution. Many of these offers seem completely legitimate, so it is up to the user to be cautious of any advertisement that comes in by way of electronic mail that might seem too good to be true. There are many people on the World Wide Web who would like nothing more than to steal your money, your personal information or your ID.