Stop right now and assume a position of peace and tranquility. Gently repeat to yourself 39 times "If it's too good to be true... it generally is!"

Have you finished yet? Good!

Always remember, It's the educated Internet citizen who will scent out a scam before the huge virtual vacuum cleaner comes rearing out of screen to suck out your wallet. Let's start off with:

Before You Begin - Does Make Money Fast Really Work?

Does Tom Cruise refuse to jump couches?

I don't think so.

Internet scams will never return you your investment at best...and at worst, they'll insidiously convince you that your money would be happier residing in their pockets instead of yours. Here's some ways to make sure you never fall prey to them.

Step 1 - Common Scams

Some of the more popular scams you'll encounter are:

• Disaster Scams - It's human nature - after natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the tsunami, people will want to help out. Alas, lots of crooks will set up false fronts to steal your money instead. Bypass all of those roadblocks by going directly to The Red Cross yourself.

• Chain Letter Pyramid Schemes - Someday you'll receive an email that states, send only $1 to 6 people (or $5 to 5 people, or ...) and they'll do the same for you and you'll be sittin' on top of a whole heap 'o cash! Hah. Check out Chain Letter Pyramid Schemes to see just how idiotic this scam really is.

• Health Care Products - Curing everything from toenail fungus to cancer to AIDS and more, these scams will promise you anything in return for your hard-earned cash. Miracle Health Claims will help you debunk these emails.

• Credit Card Fraud - You can get anything for free! Just provide your credit card to prove you're 18! Yep. And I have a lovely bridge to sell you across troubled waters, too. Credit Card Scam Warning has additional information regarding CC fraud.

• Be Your Own Boss! - Why work for someone in a J.O.B when you can fork over your savings and go destitute instead? Many emails frothing about being your own boss and making money hand over toenail are instead thinly-veiled Multi-Level Marketing Opportunites and should be shunned more than open fires at a paper factory. For an interesting read on my colleague's experiences, read Network Marketing Ate My Realtor.

• Rich Person Craves To Give You Money! - Otherwise known as the Nigerian scam, this email will state that a foreigner richer than Bill Gates, Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey put together needs a lovely person just like you! to act as a front and transfer out of the country meeyons of mooolas. Some of these letters get quite creative. You can learn more at the Nigerian 4-1-9 Scam Exhibit center.

Never allow yourself to be fooled! Let's now move to:

Step 2 - Ways To Identify Scams

When you unawarely standing face to face to a bona-fide scam, here are some steps you can take to prevent yourself from going off the deep end.

• Research! - Look carefully at the email/website/business opportunity/etc. Can you find an email address? If so, go to Google and see if that email shows up on message boards, list servers, spam complaints, etc. You can also do with with business names as well.

• Ask Around - Show your friends and family the offer. Have they seen it before? Can they poke holes into it? If so, thank them fervently on your knees for stopping you from flinging your cash to the wind.

• Research! - Did I already mention that? Let's say you're considering a scam about health products. Go to Google and search for the product plus the word "scam." Ie, let's say you're considering a miracle juice - search for

  juice scam

  You might be surprised at the results. But I'm also sure you'll find them mighty helpful too!

These are some of the ways you can identify scams. But there's even more you can do, which leads me to:

Step 3 - For More Information

There are lots and lots and lots of resources online that will help you learn to cast scams aside with a hearty chuckle of "Surely you jest!". They include:

• Scams 101 - They teach you how to smell a rat before it bites you in the hiney. Wonderful resource.

• Fraud.org - Internet and telemarketing fraud.

• World Wide Scam - tons of dissections of online scams.

• Quatloos - a public educational website covering a wide variety of financial scams and frauds, including wacky "prime bank" frauds, exotic foreign currency scams, offshore investment frauds, tax scams, "Pure Trust" structures and more...

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