You check your email box next day and find over 200 leads waiting for you along with stats that blow your mind: 2000 hits. Not bad. You quickly enter emails into your stationary or sales manager software and get those letters out to those leads. You direct same company to send another ad out to their list and get people to sign up for your newsletter. You supply url to signup and go to bed since this is too easy. The money's just about to start rolling in any minute now...

Next day is even better, you check your list and 140 people joined up for your newsletter. Your classifieds must be pulling along with all other ads since you are getting hits everyday now that you never had before.

You could have paid anywhere from $200 to $500 for this service. Problem is, service could be worth about 1 cent. But how you ask? Simple...

The Con Artist's Clever Model

Let's pretend we are programmers and that we are trying to figure out a way to sucker people. Being very clever we have come up with an idea.

1. We will create a computer program that will book 2000 random free email sites from places like Hotmail, Home.net, GeoCities.com, Eudoramail.com and about 20 others. There are hundreds to choose from but for this first draft at con job we will just use a few.

"I am an Executive Director with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and a member of Contract Advisory Committee (CAC). I am seeking your assistance to enable me transfer sum of $26,500,000 (Twenty Six Million, Five hundred Thousand United States Dollars) into your private/company account."

Carole told me she has received "3 or 4 of these in last week, I think from different people. I deleted others. It makes me nervous. Sounds like a dangerous scam. "

That's exactly what it is, of course. Maybe you're reading this thinking "I can't believe people are still falling for Nigeria scam after all this time". On other hand, maybe you're reading this thinking, "Wow, I might have responded to that. How am I supposed to know what's a scam and what's real?

The reality is that there are hundreds of thousands of people coming online, for first time, each year. Many of these people have simply not been exposed to scams like ones that are constantly touted on Internet before. Many of these people come online to try and find a way to make money with their computers and/or they're looking for ideas for making money from home.

The fact that they may not recognize scams off bat doesn't mean they're naive or stupid, it just means that they haven't been in an environment where this sort of stuff came their way before now. And don't scammers know it.

Like vultures circling overhead, they await their prey. They know they have only a narrow window of opportunity because it doesn't take newbies long to catch on so they have to be quick about it. And how do they do that? They hang out where newbies hang out so they can get them while they're still young and fresh and vulnerable. They're nothing but predators looking to pick off easiest game. Wouldn't want to have to engage in any real work, after all. In this article we look at several main scams and how to recognize them.

=> Nigerian Advance Fee Scheme

The gist of this worldwide scheme is that small to medium-size businesses receive a letter from someone who purports to be an official of Nigerian government or major utility or similar who needs to transfer some huge amount of money out of country. The money typically is an overpayment by government on a procurement contract. The object of exercise is to get you to provide your bank account details (for purpose of wire transferring money of course). Surprise surprise, there's a transfer all right but not INTO your account!

=> The FTC "Dirty Dozen"

These are top 12 scams that have been identified by (U.S.) Federal Trade Commission as most likely to arrive via email:

1. Business Opportunities - often pyramid schemes (see below) thinly disguised as legitimate opportunities to earn money. What to look for: high returns with little or no effort or cash outlay required.