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Top Online Email and Internet Scams

By Mary Landesman, About.com

The Internet makes it easier to accomplish many things - banking, research, travel, and shopping are all at our virtual fingertips. And just as the Internet makes it easier for legitmate pursuits, it also makes it easier for scammers, con artists, and other online miscreants to carry out their virtual crimes - impacting our real life finances, security, and peace of mind. These Internet scams are constantly evolving - here are the most common today.

1. Phishing scams

Phishing email try to trick the intended victim into visiting a fraudulent website disguised to look like a valid eCommerce or banking site. The victim thinks they are logging into their real account, but instead everything they enter on the fake site is being sent to the scammers. Armed with this information, the scammer can wipe out the victim's accounts, run up their credit cards, or even steal their identity.
  • Examples of common phishing scams
  • How to Ferret Out a Phish
  • Where to Report Phishing Scams

    • 2. Greeting Card Scams

    Greeting card scams arrive in email pretending to be from a friend or family member. Clicking the link to view the card typically leads to a booby-trapped web page that downloads Trojans and other malicious software onto the systems of the unsuspecting.
  • Tell-Tale Signs of a Greeting Card Scam
  • Hallmark Greeting Card Scam

    • 3. Nigerian 419 Scams

    Nigerian 419 scams (aka Advanced Fee Fraud) date back to the days when fax machines and snail mail were the primary business communication tools. Today, email is the preferred method of these scammers and there are more Nigerian 419 Advanced Fee Fraud scams - and victims - than ever before.
  • Nigerian 419 Advanced Fee Fraud
  • Example of Nigerian 419 Scam
  • Nigerian 419 Adopts Iraqi Battlefront
  • Murder by Email: Nigerian 419 Fraud

    • 4. Pump and Dump Stock Scams

    Pump and dump scams send large volumes of email that pretend to disclose confidential information about a particular stock in an attempt to inflate the price.
  • How Pump and Dump Stock Scams Work
  • PDF Spam Used for Pump and Dump

    • 5. Killer Spam: Hitman Email Threatens Recipients

    Imagine opening your email inbox and reading a message from an alleged assassin - claiming you're the target. It sounds like something out of a horror movie, but it's been happening in real life to hundreds of people. The gist of the email - pay the hitman thousands of dollars, or die.

    6. Lottery Winning Scams

    Lottery winner scams attempt to trick recipients into believing they have won large sums of cash, and then bilks them out of their own dough in a similar fashion to the Nigerian 419 scam.
  • International Lottery Winner Scam
  • Did Lottery Scam Lead to Murder?
  • Lottery Scam Meets AOL/Microsoft Hoax

    • 7. Fraudulent Link Scams

    Scams, in general, are the new malware delivery method. Social engineering is the norm. Falsifying a link is the hallmark of phishing scams, seeded downloader Trojans, and other web-based malware. And it's all trivially easy to do, using basic HTML.
  • Fraudulent Link Scams
  • Ferreting Out a Fake
  • Verifying a Link

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