Normally when I participate in a blog carnival, I write it up as an entire post on its own. That’s because I like to share the different articles and links that were included in the carnival along with my thoughts on the writing there. However, I’m doing it differently this week since I participated in several blog carnivals at once. I’m just doing a roundup because the same post was included in so many carnivals. If you’re interested in the topic of the carnival, I encourage you to follow the link to check out all of the other great articles that were included along with mine.

The post was an educational article called Beware! 15 Common Scams that Can Steal Your Money. It was included in the following carnivals:

• Struggling Bumbling Newbies carnival
• Working at Home Blog Carnival
• Carnival of Money Stories
• Carnival of Everything Personal Finance
• eBay and Small Business Carnival
• Money Hacks Carnival

I thought it was a good article and I hope that others do as well. It’s certainly included with some top articles in these carnivals!

Tags: blog carnival, links, money, Personal Finance, scams

We all know that scams exist. We’ve all seen those letters from the person in need of baking assistance in Nigeria. Many of us have received emails telling us that a friend is in need and we must wire money to them. Some of us have gotten phone calls trying to convince us that our car warranty is up and that we need to renew it. These are all common scams that are designed to steal our money. We know that they exist and yet people continue to have their money stolen from them again and again.

The best way to make sure that you do not become a victim of a scam is to educate yourself about scams. Learn about which scams are most common. Find out how they convince you to give up your money or your financial information. Arming yourself with this knowledge makes it a lot easier for you to identify when you might become a victim of a scam so that you can avoid that terrible fate.

One great resource for getting this type of education is an article called Beware! 15 Commons Scams That Can Steal Your Money. This article lists fifteen scams and describes them so that you can understand them better. It also provides details about variations on the scams. And finally, it has loads of links to resources that can help you get even more information. Protect your money and protect yourself!

Tags: common scams, money, Personal Finance, scams, victim of scam

I spend a lot of time online. When I say a lot, I mean more than the average person. On any given day, I probably find myself online for a minimum of ten hours. Sometimes quite a bit more. This is due to the fact that I work online as well as play online.

Because I spend so much time online, I’ve had to learn a lot about being safe online. I know about every aspect of this from protecting myself from identity theft online to being aware of crazy online predators. And I also know a lot about online scams.

Perhaps that’s why I was able to successfully and thoroughly answer this question on Yahoo! Answers about avoiding scams when doing online shopping. I hope the tips that I gave were useful not only to the asker who chose my answer as the best one but also to others who stumble across the question.

Tags: answer question, internet, online scams, online shopping, scams, smart shopping, Yahoo Answers

I am often surprised by the fact that people continue to get trapped by online scams. I’m astounded that anyone would ever answer a Nigerian bank request in their email or click through on a highly promotional ad for genital enhancement or go ahead and call up to see if they’ve really won the lottery like that computer is telling them that they did. Because I am online so much, I am familiar with these online scams and I ignore their attempts to snag me. I assume that others do as well until I read about those people who are still getting scammed online.

Because I am online so much, I may be able to avoid these scams but I also do realize that the scammers are getting better and better at what they do. They are learning tricks to get even people like me by looking legitimate in what they’re doing online. It’s tough to avoid them sometimes. That’s why it’s important that we arm ourselves with knowledge about how to not get scammed online.

There are many basic things that the average Internet user can do to avoid online scams. Learning to ignore those emails and popups are a big part of the picture. Increasing computer security and trusting your gut instinct on the Internet are also things that we need to be doing. Make sure that you’re aware of the scams that are out there and that you do what you can to avoid them. You’re not only helping yourself but also making it harder for the scammers to stay in business which ends up helping all of us.

Tags: avoid online scams, don't get scammed, fraud, how to not get scammed, internet, privacy, scams, security, Technology, web 2.0