Common frauds to watch out for

It can be expensive to be unaware of the most common internet fraud activities. Simply select from the list below and a description will appear beneath.

Boiler room scams are share purchasing schemes mostly arising from cold calls or sometimes from unsolicited mail. The reason they are called 'Boiler rooms' is the high pressure and persistent selling techniques used by the fraudsters to sell the shares.

However, the shares that are offered are likely to be bogus or so illiquid that they are almost impossible to sell.

While UK investors are targeted, the boiler rooms are usually based overseas so are not subject to regulation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). As a result, victims of this type of fraud are unlikely to be covered by any compensation scheme.

The typical targets in the UK are investors with previous experience of buying shares, whose names can be found on share registers.

According to the FSA, the average amount lost by victims of boiler room scams is around £20,000. For the latest information on boiler room scams please visit the FSA's website.

Fraudsters create authentic looking, but false or "spoof" websites. Their purpose is to tempt users to enter personal information. This information will be re-used to try and access your bank accounts. Fraudsters are increasingly turning to email to generate traffic to these websites.

Recently customers of several financial institutions have received such emails and this activity is only likely to increase. Such emails typically contain a link to a spoof website and mislead account holders to enter usernames and passwords on the pretence that security details can be updated, or passwords changed.

If you ever get an email containing an embedded link, and a request for you to enter secret details, treat it as suspicious. Do not input any sensitive information that might help provide access to your accounts, even if the page appears legitimate. No reputable company ever sends emails of this type.

These are unsolicited letters and emails offering the recipient a generous reward for helping to move a staggeringly large balance of funds, usually in US Dollars. These funds claim to be anything from corporate profits / accumulated bribes / unspent government funds to unclaimed funds from a deceased person.

The fraudsters are after banking details. The transactions typically require the recipient to pay something like a fee/tax/bribe to complete the deal - this is the Advance Fee. Such fees will be lost.

A recent development is to convince the recipient that the funds are ready to be moved by, getting them to log into a fake bank website and look at a specific account which shows a credit balance of tens of millions of dollars. These funds do not really exist.

It is also common for recipients' details to be used in other types of fraud.

These are letters or emails that advise the recipient they have won a prize in a lottery. To obtain the funds the recipient has to reply. A request will then be made for bank details to allow for funds to be transferred. They may also ask for a handling/processing fee. This fee, if paid, will be lost. Also any details given will probably be used in other frauds.

It is a sad fact of life that there are those who enjoy exploiting the concerns of others. Many emailed warnings about viruses are hoaxes, designed purely to cause concern and disrupt businesses.

Such warnings may be genuine, so don't take them lightly, but always check the story out by visiting an anti-virus site, such as McAfee, Sophos or Symantec, before taking any action, including forwarding them to friends and colleagues.