As you probably know, the Internet is a great and wonderful place with all the world’s information right at your fingertips. However, the Internet can be a dangerous place as well if you don’t keep an eye out. I’m sure you’ve seen messages like the infamous Nigerian letter, PayPal, and E-Bay and banking scam emails asking for your user name and passwords or you’ll be charged/closed/abducted by aliens etc.

Here are several things to look for whenever you get a suspicious message:

• The “from” and “reply to” email address should be the same, and the addresses should be from the same web domain mentioned in the message.
• Is the email signed by someone? It should be the same name that’s in the ‘reply’ email address.
• Be Leary of emails with bad grammar or poor punctuation or spelling. Ther’re almost always scams.
• Does the email ask you to reply with a password/account name/social security number or ask you to reply with any other information? Legitimate companies will never ask you to give us your e-mail password through e-mail.
• If you suspect the email is a scam but are not sure and want to check into it further, do not click on any links or reply to the email. Rather, go directly to the website by entering the web address in your web browser.