The online scams on the Internet are hidden like landmines, ready to explode on the unsuspecting surfer who happens to believe what they say. These web scams have the ability to take not just your cash but also your identity if you don't know how to protect yourself.

Most of the sites that you find online are legitimate and offer you goods or services with a secure method of payment. However, there are web scams where scammers set up mirror sites to the original site and hope to trick online shoppers into believing they are at the real website.

The most common way that scammers manage to get away with this is by setting up their site so that it is almost identical to one that already exists.

Then they run an email advertising campaign relating to the products they sell at the site. The links in the email look as if they are going to the real site, but they actually lead to the mirror site and anything ordered at the fake site doesn't really exist and the scammers take the money.

Identify theft scams work in a similar way. The scammers send out emails which look as if they come from well known websites. These types of online scams are commonly known as phishing.

They harvest email addresses from various sources and send out emails requesting you to update your information at whichever site they are copying.

When you click on the link contained in their email, you will not be taken to the real site, but rather one that has been set up by the scammers to appear legitimate. Any information you put into this site will be able to be used by the scammers, including your address and credit card number.

It's easy to become a victim to these online scams because they are very convincing. But there are a few steps you can take to reduce the chances of being caught in these online scams.

1. Don't visit or shop at the site named in the email - delete it immediately.

2. If you do use the site, read the email carefully but DO NOT click on any of the links contained in it. Instead, open up your web browser and type in the URL of the site and then check your account status.

If there is nothing there that looks wrong, forward the email to the people who run the site. Many of the more popular sites have emails specifically for this such as "scam@ abc.com"

3. When using your credit card to pay for items online, make sure that there is a secure payments system in place. If there isn't use a paypal account instead.

That way if you have fallen victim to scammers tricks, you will only lose the actual amount of the transaction but you won't have given out your credit card information.

Scammers are smart and very convincing but hopefully these few tips can help you reduce the chances of being caught in any of these online scams.

Copyright 2005 Spyware-Information.com All Rights Reserved.