E-mail hoaxes

Nigerian money scams: This is also known as the 419 scam (the Nigerian penal code for this type of crime). It is a confidence trick that encourages you to invest small sums of money with the promise of a larger payoff.  The e-mail is usually made to look like it was sent on behalf of a Government or an individual, who for some ridiculous reason are sitting on a vast sum of money. These scammers are an imaginative bunch, the stories range from rich foreign-nationals killed in plane crashes to corrupt government officials who have embezzled funds. If you agree to assist in retrieving the funds you are promised a share of the haul, which is jolly nice of them – isn’t it?