A recent email from streetwise Scambusters’ subscriber Scott about a tutor-help-wanted ad he answered in Craigslist put us on the trail of tutor scams for this week’s issue.

With pets in two out of three American households, lucrative animal scams have a huge potential target. From drugging difficult horses before selling them and dumping unwanted ones on unsuspecting stable owners...

This issue focuses on avoiding foreclosure scams — and helping others do so as well. Although this issue is targeted to the US program, similar scams likely exist in other countries as well.

Fraudsters prey on users who think the world’s top social networking site, Facebook, is a safe haven on the Internet. Lisa Severens, a clinical trials manager from Worcester, Massachusetts, learned the hard way...

LONDON — It was perhaps inevitable that we ended 2008, the year we learned we were up the creek, with a great financial scandal: the Madoff Ponzi case. What is even more remarkable is the way in which the alleged fleecing of wealthy people and charities...

There’s probably only one failsafe way to totally prevent identity theft when you sell or give away your computer. That’s by removing the hard drive first and putting it through a commercial crushing machine!

Phony travel guides. You may have seen this trick in the movie Slumdog Millionaire. At a famous venue, a local offers to show you around for a fee...

When times are hard, people search for money-making ideas and hucksters turn to investment scams. They promise high returns with low risks, new ways to invest and then pretend to have inside information ...

SCAMwatch is warning consumers to be on the look out for scammers seeking to profit from the recent swine flu health threat.

Although most travel scams occur in big cities, never let your guard down — anywhere. You’re more likely to be scammed in places like New York, Chicago or L.A., and (internationally) in Rome, Barcelona, Paris or Seoul.

In our recent issue on the huge rise in job scams arising from the downturn in the economy, we highlighted the employment of “money mules” — people who “launder” stolen money and the proceeds of crime. Though we didn’t use the “money mule” term in that article, we explained how victims are fooled by the crooks into thinking they’ve landed the perfect, legitimate work-at-home jobs ...

Media bulletins, whether on the Internet, TV or in print, are saturated with reports of job scams these days as crooks seize the chance to exploit soaring, recession-driven lay-offs.

How’s your typing? Ever think you keyed in a correct website address only to find yourself in the wrong place? Our guess is that you have. And if you did, and you noticed it, count yourself lucky. Because if you hadn’t spotted it, you could be in deep trouble.

In honor of “History’s Greatest Hoaxes Week,” we’ve compiled our (unscientific) Top 10 List of History’s Greatest Internet Hoaxes. Long-time subscribers will be familiar with many of these — but there are a few new ones we’ve never written about before. Several of these hoaxes will make you chuckle: 10. Shark attacks helicopter hoax In August 2001, an exceptionally popular email hoax

Most versions of this scam involve someone sending you a check or money order for more than the price of something you are selling, and you get to keep the difference as a commission (or you need to send them back some amount for some reason). The most common version involves selling your car, truck or other vehicle. For example, you list a car or other large ticket item for sale.