Wow! Lucky me again for today I have won US$1 500 000 in an Italian lottery and I didn’t even have to buy a ticket?? I just have to send some nice person my bank account and pin number so they can deposit the funds in my account. Hmmm

How does anyone fall for these scamms – they are so obviously fraudulent I can’t believe anyone is taken in by them – but people are. With the ability to bulk email the entire Internet it only takes one gullible fool and the sender starts to rake in the cash.

Some scams however are very well crafted and very believable, so follow some general rules:

1. If something sounds too good to be true then it probably isn’t

2. You never win anything without entering

3. Official warnings of great catastrophe and impending doom are not sent via email.

4. NEVER giver out banking/credit card details – stranger danger for big kids.

5. Official organisations do not use hotmail, gmail addresses.

Before you play good samaritan and send your hard earned money to Africa to save the poor child who’s been chained to an elephant’s butt for the last 12 years check out the Urban Legends reference site www.snopes.com – you may be surprised what is and is not real.

Why not use Snopes to verify the water bridge in Germany for instance . . .