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There are a variety of frauds, hoaxes and annoyances that circulate by email. This page describes some of the most common.
There are a whole host of annoying hoaxes that circulate by email and encourage you to pass them on to other people. How do you spot if something is a hoax? Most hoaxes have a similar pattern. These are some common examples to illustrate the language used:
In general, be wary of anything that says "forward this to everyone you know!" and think twice before doing so. You might just be making a fool of yourself. If in doubt, check. See Hoaxbusters for more information and examples.
This a common attempt to con you out of money. Pyramid schemes are worded along the lines of "send ten pounds to this address and add yourself to the bottom of the list. In six weeks you'll be a millionaire!". They don't work. They are normally illegal. You won't makes any money from them.
Advance fee fraud, also known as Nigerian fraud or 419 fraud, is a particularly dangerous con operated by organised criminals. It takes the form of an email claiming to be from a businessman or government official, normally in a West African state, who supposedly has millions of pounds obtained from the corrupt regime and would like your help in getting it out of the country. In return for depositing the money in your bank account you are promised a large chunk of it.
How does the con work? The basic trick is that after you reply and start talking to the fraudsters they eventually ask you for a large sum of money up front in order to get an even larger sum later. You pay, they disappear, and you loose.
Remember, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. See this warning about hoaxes from the Metropolitan Police.
Spam or junk email is particularly annoying, especially as some people receive so much of it. There are some techniques you can use to filter it and make it less intrusive. We have a separate guide on How to deal with junk email.
Computer viruses often spread by email, in particular in attachments. To avoid email viruses:
More advice on viruses is available.
Phishing is an attempt using spoofed emails or instant messages and fraudulent websites designed to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, bank account details, or usernames and passwords. In its most basic form, phishing takes the form of spam email messages asking you to divulge your bank account details. Some of these attacks are extremely sophisticated, making it very hard to differentiate a phishing email from a legitimate one. Scams can contain standard company logos, convincing text and a link to a website that appears to belong to a bank.
The number and sophistication of phishing scams sent out continues to increase. While online banking and e-commerce is safe, as a general rule you should be very careful about giving out your personal financial information over the Internet.
More information on phishing is available in the security awareness section.
These arrive as unwanted email or may be posted on bulletin boards, urging you to buy shares in a particular company. They purport to be inside information that shares of the firm concerned are about to rocket in value. This is a con - it hasn't come from the company concerned and is simply an attempt to manipulate the share price.
What happens? If enough people are fooled then there will be a rush to buy shares and the price may indeed go up briefly. The price will fall again when investors discovered that it was simply an attempt to manipulate the market. The fraudsters may make a profit by selling shares they already have at the artificially inflated price. Most people taken in by the fake tip will loose money.