Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cracked down on scammers running amuck all over the place. They were preying on desperate people going through hard times by promising a way to quick riches. Companies came up with names like Google Money Tree, Classic Closeouts, and Mutual Consolidated Savings.

These all seemed like legitimate companies. They all sold actual products and some of the companies even hired celebrities to endorse the crap they were selling!

The crackdown on these scams put a dent in the business of scamming, but there are still plenty of them out there. Watch out for e-mails requesting personal information or asking you to do things like “update your account information.” Legitimate companies will never ask you for this information and you should be sure to notify the real companies when you are solicited like this.

If the Prince of Nigeria contacts you because he needs to smuggle millions of dollars into the country claiming that you are his long lost relative and he will share the riches from his pig farm operations with you, it’s obvious that it is a scam. You need to be careful about the more subtle things like the fake e-mails that appear to be from the bank you use. Make sure there is an https:// in your address bar whenever you do enter personal information on the web and make sure those links actually take you to your banks website.

You can find out more about how to protect yourself from the video above or by visiting the FTC website.