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Scammers on the Internet are very creative and constantly come up with new scams or variations on old scams. The only way to fight this is with knowledge. Here are some top Internet scams you should be aware of.

Auction Fraud or E-commerce Fraud

You pay for an item that you never receive. Solution: The best way to prevent this is to go through established auction sites like Ebay, and buy from well-known online vendors, or vendors that are verified by a third party, such as Better Business Bureau or HackerSafe.

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Phishing / Identity Theft

This is a scam where you receive an email from Paypal, Ebay, or a Bank telling you that your account is compromised and you must log in. There are variations on why you must log into your account, but basically the trick here is to get you to click a link to your account. This link goes to an official looking site that looks like Paypal or Ebay's site, but is actually a fake. Once you provide your account information, the scammers use that to log in and steal personal information (i.e. Identity Theft). Solution: Ignore urgent sounding emails from Ebay, Paypal, banks, etc. If you are in doubt, call your bank or log in to the actual site and see if you have any messages.

Nigerian Scams

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In this scam, you get an email informing you that someone died in a foreign country and left you millions of dollars. Or alternatively, a rich person in a foreign country may ask you to help move some funds, and they will pay you millions for your assistance. You contact them and they tell you that you need to provide a couple thousand dollars as an upfront legal fee, which you must pay first in order to get your millions. Solution: Use your head. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Credit Card Offers or Loan Offers

You are approved for a credit card or loan. The catch is you need to pay a fee upfront. Solution: Don't accept email offers. Also don't accept offers that require you to pay upfront.

Lottery Scams

You receive an email that you won a lottery (which you never even entered, an interesting notion in and of itself). All you have to do is pay a few thousand in processing fees and you'll have your millions. Solution: Tell them to subtract the fee from your winnings. Better yet, don't believe any email notification of lottery winnings, period.

FBI Email Scam

This is not too prevalent yet but I include it because I find it especially distasteful. In this scam you receive an email from someone posing as the FBI. There are too many variations to list, but the basic idea is that they will try to scare you into providing personal information or paying money. Solution: Ignore and delete unsolicited emails from the FBI. Seriously, if it's something important, the FBI has other ways of getting in touch with you.