HOW TO AVOID INTERNET SCAMS

1. Paypal problems

A common eBay scam

A simple trick is offering to pay by Paypal but collecting in person the same day that payment is made. You should never allow this. The likelihood is that the Paypal account will have been set up with a stolen credit card.

You're not covered by Paypal's seller protection if someone collects the goods from you. Anyone selling on eBay and accepting payment by Paypal should read the rules. If you follow Paypal's rules to the letter, Paypal should protect you, up to a point. Read more here  (https://www.paypal.com/uk/sellerprotection)

2. Forward to your email provider

Report scam emails; for instance, if they use Yahoo email, forward these on to abuse@yahoo.com. Most other email providers have the abuse@ facility. This will at least inconvenience the scammers as the email account will be closed."

3. Report spammers

If you're getting scam emails, report them free to Spamcop, (http://spamcop.net) which blacklists the senders and get their mails blocked. If you get mails purporting to be from a financial institution, forward them to reports@banksafeonline.org.uk. Check out Bank Safe Online's website for more details. The only way to defeat this menace is for everyone to do their bit. Report spam. Don't just delete it!"

4. FORWARDING EMAILS

When Forwarding emails REMOVE all the email addresses in the link otherwise you are giving out other peoples emails, seriously would you like your email address falling into the wrong hands, not everyone has virus protection.

If you want to send to more than one person use the BCC facility

5. Be careful with email addresses

When you want others to see the email addresses in the body of your emails:

The tell-tale @ must be replaced. This is often with "at", and the ( .) with “dot” but any characters that will be obvious to the addressee will do.

Exercise Caution with  sensitive emails even  mildly sensitive stuff, risks of abuse can be reduced by splitting it over two or more emails, sent at different times."

6. Keep your details private

If I ever have to give my date of birth on a Web form, I give Christmas Day or Valentine's Day. Then they don't actually have details that your bank would have, because you never really know how careful these sites are at destroying information. I

7. Check the legitimacy of the site

If you suspect you've been diverted to a bogus website, enter a wrong password. If you're on the legitimate website then it will know that the password is wrong and will tell you immediately. If it takes you to the next page then don't go any further: it'll be a scam.

8. Don't let your guard down

However, this technique isn't fool-proof, Just be aware that there are so-called 'man-in-the-middle' attacks in which the villain passes your replies to (e.g.) eBay, and eBay's responses back to you. Therefore, if you enter a wrong password it will ask you to try again. Don't let your guard down when asked for any sensitive information!

9. Use your common sense

There's an old saying in the con industry: 'You can't con an honest mark'. What this means is that the reason it's so easy to scam people is that you're playing on people's greed and their desire to get something for nothing.

10. Chain spamming

The purpose of these chains is to gather email addresses for either viruses or spam. Stop passing on chains, and tell senders not to, so the word spreads!

Remember they are very good at this, they will play on all your weaknesses especially superstitions like  “ you will receive bad luck if you don’t pass this onto 10 friends now”