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11 Worst E-Mail Scams

by Joshua Fruhlinger on July 26, 2008 at 12:01 AM


You've heard about them, you've seen them, perhaps you've been had by one: e-mail scams. Millions of people are cheated over e-mail every year. In 2005 alone, consumers lost nearly $14 million dollars to Internet scams. Sadly, that number is on the rise as crooks come up with new methods to get at your money and information. We capture eleven of the worst on the following pages.

Usually, scammers attempt to trick you into filling out forms on rogue sites. Rogue sites usually look legitimate (some are even replicas of legitimate sites you trust), but they are set up to spread a virus, collect names for spammers or grab your personal information. Other scams try to get you to reply to e-mails requesting your personal data like passwords and bank account numbers. Once you've given up the info, criminals can siphon your cash, make purchases and get out before you even have a chance to track them down.

We talked to some experts, including Carol McKay of the National Consumers League, to get some advice, which we've included here, on handling some of the bigger scams. She offers up some tips you literally can't afford to miss, and we've come up with a few of our own that should keep you safe from persistent online scammers. Read on, and stay safe....


Tags: email, features, scams

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