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1) The Nigerian scam
It is a desperate cry for help in getting a very large sum of money out of the country. A common variation is a woman in Africa who claimed that her husband had died, and that she wanted to leave millions of dollars of his estate to a good church

This scam, like most scams, is to good to be true. However, so many people still fall into this con game. Most of scammers are promising that they are willing to give you huge payments without asking you a favor. All you are asked to do is cover the "endless" legal or small "fees" to the people who can release the scammer's money.

The more you are willing to pay, the more they will try to suck out of your wallet. You will never see any of the promised money, because there isn’t any.



2) Advanced fees paid for a guaranteed loan or credit card
If you are thinking about applying for a “pre-approved” loan or a credit card that charges an up-front fee, ask yourself: “why would a bank do that?” These scams are obvious to people who take time to scrutinize the offer.

Remember: reputable credit card companies do charge an annual fee but it is applied to the balance of the card, never at the sign-up. Furthermore, if you legitimately clear your credit balance each month, a legitimate bank will often wave the annual fee.

As for these incredible, pre-approved loans for a half-a-million dollar homes: use your common sense. These people do not know you or your credit situation, yet they are willing to offer massive credit limits.

Sadly, a percentage of all the recipients of their “amazing” offer will take the bait and pay the up-front fee. If only one in every thousand people fall for this scam, the scammers still win several hundred dollars. Alas, far too many victims, pressured by financial problems, willingly step into this con man's trap.

3) Lottery scams
This scam will usually come in the form of a conventional email message. It will inform you that you won millions of dollars and congratulate you repeatedly. The catch: before you can collect your “winnings”, you must pay the “processing” fee of several thousands of dollars.

Stop! The moment the bad guys cash your money order, you lose. Once you realize you have been suckered into paying $3000 to a con man, they are long gone with your money. Do not fall for this lottery scam.

4) Phishing emails and phony web pages

This is the most popular Internet and email scams today. These phising emails notice you to go into a phony webpage and entering your ID and password. It is commonly an urgent need to "confirm your identity". The scammer ever tell you a story of how your account is attacked to lure you into entering your confidential information.

Tip: the beginning of the link address should have https://. Phishing fakes will just have http:// (no “s”). If still in doubt, make a phone call to the financial institution to verify if the email is legit. In the meantime, if an email seems suspicious to you, do not trust it. Being skeptical could save you hundreds of lost dollars.

5) Items for sale overpayment scam

This one involves an item you have listed for sale, especially for expensive items. The scammers found your ads somewhere; then, they send you an email to notice you that they are willing to pay much more than your asking price. The reason for overpayment is related to international fees to ship those expensive items oversea. In turn, you are to send them those things and cash the difference.

The money you received was absolutely fake. If you did not realize the fake money order, and so deposited in your account. In the couple of days, the bank informs that it was not real and demand you to pay back immediately. Finally, you now have lost your stuffs, the cash you sent to them, and you owe a large amount of money to your bank to cover for the bad money order.

A blog (also called a weblog or web log) is a website consisting of entries (also called posts) appearing in reverse chronological order with the most recent entry appearing first (similar in format to a daily journal). Blogs typically include features such as comments and links to increase user interactivity. Blogs are created using specific publishing software

Variations of the term blog:
Blogging: The act of writing a post for a blog
Blogger: A person who writes content for a blog
Blogosphere: The online community of blogs and bloggers

The World Before Blogging:
There was a time when the Internet was just an informational tool. In the early life of the World Wide Web some 20 years ago, websites were simple and provided a one-sided conversation. As time went on, the Internet became more interactive with the introduction of transaction-based websites and online shopping, but the online world remained one-sided.

That all changed with the evolution of Web 2.0 (the social web) wherein user-generated content became an integral part of the online world. Today, users expect websites to provide a two-way conversation and web logs (or blogs) were born.

The Birth of Blogs:
The earliest blogs started in the late 1990s as online diaries. Individuals posted information on a daily basis about their lives and opinions. The daily posts were listed in reverse date order, so readers viewed the most recent post first and scrolled through previous posts. The format provided an ongoing inner monologue from the writer.

As blogs evolved, interactive features were added to create a two-way conversation. Readers took advantage of features that allowed them to leave comments on blog posts or link to posts on other blogs and websites to further the dialogue.

Blogs Today:
As the Internet has become more social, blogs have gained in popularity. Today, there are over 100 million blogs with more entering the blogosphere everyday. Blogs have become more than online diaries. In fact, blogging has become an important part of the online and offline worlds with popular bloggers impacting the worlds of politics, business and society with their words.

The Future of Blogs:
It seems inevitable that blogging will become even more powerful in the future with more people and businesses recognizing the power of bloggers as online influencers. Anyone can start a blog thanks to the simple (and often free) tools readily available online. The question will likely become not, "Why should I start a blog?" but rather, "Why shouldn't I start a blog?"

Podcasts are digital media files (most often audio, but they can be video as well), which are produced in a series. You can subscribe to a series of files, or podcast, by using a piece of software called a podcatcher. Once you subscribe, your podcatcher periodically checks to see if any new files have been published, and if so, automatically downloads them onto your computer or portable music player for you to listen to or watch, whenever you wish.

Why Do People Tune In?
Podcasting attracts people who want the ability to choose their own content (much like using the Internet), instead of the TV and radio model of broadcast where you tune in and select from one of the programs playing. It shares common ground with other time shifting technologies like TIVO, which allow you to download programs and watch whenever you want.

Many people like the convenience of always having fresh material loaded on their iPods or personal music players, and listen to their podcasts throughout the day.

Many consider podcasting an alternative to commercial radio and TV, because the low cost of producing a podcast allows more voices and viewpoints to be heard. Also, unlike TV and radio, which produce programs for mass consumption, podcasts are “narrowcasts,” where only those interested in a certain topic seek out programs and sign up to listen. There are thousands of podcasts which target very specific niche interests, producing communities around topics which are too obscure for traditional broadcasting to cover

Why Do People Make Podcasts?
Podcasting is an easy and powerful way to communicate your ideas and messages. You can potentially reach anyone with a broadband connection who is searching for podcasts and subscribes to your show. People who start podcasts usually want to deliver their content in a series, stretched out over a period of time. There are minimal equipment and start up costs if you already own a computer, and so this allows anyone who ever dreamed of owning a radio station (and some who didn't) the chance to transmit their ideas far beyond the reach of a radio transmitter.

Podcasters often start shows with the intention of building online communities, and often solicit comments and feedback on their programs. People use web blogs, groups, and forums to communicate with other listeners and the show's producers. Businesses are beginning to realize that podcasting is a cheap way to advertise to groups with very specific interests. Many large companies are starting to produce podcasts, both to communicate with their customers, and also with their own employees.

Podscope is a search engine that scans the audio of Podcasts, listens for keywords, and allows you to search for topics based on what is in the audio of the file. You can select snippets of audio from the results to help you decide whether the podcast is relevant, or something that you might even want to subscribe to. You can also download a search box that lets your own audience search your podcast using Podscope. Check it out here.

As a home computer user accessing the Internet, whether through a broadband connection or traditional dial-up, you should do the following three things at a minimum to protect your compute:

1. Install and maintain anti-virus software. There are plenty of great anti-virus software packages available. This software checks for known viruses by scanning your computer periodically. Most will also check for viruses on incoming email. It is important to update the software as well though.

New viruses are discovered almost daily. At least once a week you should check the web site of the vendor that makes your anti-virus software to see if there is an update available.

2. Do not open unknown or suspicious email. Many viruses and worms use what is called “social engineering”.

That is, they attempt to trick you into becoming a participant in the process. The latest viruses can “spoof” the sending email address so that it looks like it is coming from someone other than the computer that infected it.
If an email is not from someone you know, it is usually best to simply delete it without looking at it. If the email appears to be from someone you know, you should read the message carefully before opening any attached files. Viruses and worms often have bad English and poor grammar. Consider whether the person you know would really have written that message or forwarded you the attached file. If in doubt, contact that person you know to confirm they truly sent it before opening the attachment.

3. Keep your computer patched against known vulnerabilities. Almost as often as new viruses are discovered, new vulnerabilities are discovered as well. Many times they are in the operating system (like Windows), but vulnerabilities are also found in tools like your web browser, email software and other 3rd party tools. Left unpatched, these vulnerabilities can be exploited by hackers to obtain access and control of your computer.

Staying up to date can be difficult. Some vendors, such as Microsoft, have automated utilities that check for updates and notify you. Other vendors may have an email mailing list you can join so they can notify you of any new updates. If your vendor doesn’t offer one of these solutions, you may just need to periodically visit their support web site to check for any new patches or updates.

If you subscribe to Cable or DSL broadband at home, then you are likely to be casually "attacked" by hackers up to three dozen times a day. Especially if you use Windows XP or other Windows operating systems, you are a prime target for savvy hackers who will exploit your fulltime internet connection.

As good as Microsoft products are, they are also obsessively targeted by hackers around the world. Small Microsoft "holes" perforate your computer, including: your administrator account, your ICF firewall service, your guest logon, your shared folders, your messaging services, your Identifier Broadcasts, your port openings, and your Encrypted File Services... all of these obscure points are absolute candy for hackers!

Yes, this is frightening. But all is not lost... most of these security holes in Microsoft are easily patched by an hour of reading and an hour of configuring your PC.

Good home security is about vigilance, knowledge, and meticulous attention to detail. We here at About.com want to help you with that, so we have provided dozens of free articles explaining security holes and how best to plug them.

Welcome to the exciting and challenging world of anti-hacker and anti-virus defense! What follows next are explanations of firewalls, packet filter routers, toggling Windows services to prevent external access, configuring WiFi networks for privacy, and overall blocking of hackers on Cable and DSL networks.

These next tutorials are updated frequently to reflect news and software changes. Please check back often for updates!

Have you ever e-mailed a friend or family member and sent them a link to a website you thought they might find interesting? If so, you have participated in social bookmarking.

What is social bookmarking? It is tagging a website and saving it for later. Instead of saving them to your web browser, you are saving them to the web. And, because your bookmarks are online, you can easily share them with friends.

What Can Social Bookmarking Do For Me?
Not only can you save your favorite websites and send them to your friends, but you can also look at what other people have found interesting enough to tag. Most social bookmarking sites allow you to browse through the items based on most popular, recently added, or belonging to a certain category like shopping, technology, politics, blogging, news, sports, etc.

You can even search through what people have bookmarked by typing in what you are looking for in the search tool. In fact, social bookmarking sites are being used as intelligent search engines.

What is Social News?
Websites like Digg, Reddit and Propeller focus on social bookmarking of news-related items such as politics, sports, technology, etc. These websites will often feature breaking headlines and bloggers discussing the current news items.

They can be a great source of news, and they also offer the ability to participate in the discussion by leaving comments on popular news items.

How Do I Benefit?:
Social bookmarking and social news allow you to specifically target what you want to see. Instead of going into a search engine, typing something in, and then searching for that needle in a haystack, you can quickly narrow down the items to what you are looking for.

Because many of the sites display recently added lists and popular links, you can both stay current and see relevant information. For example, let's say you are interested in learning more about social shopping. You might search for social shopping on one of these sites and come up with two articles: one with a hundred votes and one with two votes.

It's pretty easy to tell that the article with a hundred votes might be your best choice. And this is a lot easier than putting "social shopping" into a search engine and seeing page after page after page of links that may or may not be useful.

So, what started out as a way to send bookmarks to friends has really grown into social search engines. You no longer need to page through thousands of results to find a needle in a haystack. Now, you can simply go to a social bookmarking site, choose the category or tag that matches your interest, and find the most popular websites