Phishing: Phishing is a way of gathering sensitive data, particularly personal bank account details, which can then be accessed for criminal purposes. It works like this. An email arrives, which appears to come from your bank. It asks you to click on a link to the bank’s website so that you can confirm your account details and passwords. Clicking on the link takes you to a website that looks just like your bank's site – but it isn’t! You can guess the rest. If your bank really wanted you to confirm account details they would write you a letter (on real paper). They never do it by email.

Scams: Similar in some ways to phishing, there are a number of other techniques used to try to separate you from large amounts of money. Typical, and very common is the 419 scam, also known as the Nigerian Scam. You receive an unsolicited e-mail, usually from someone in Nigeria, (or, less frequently, another West African country) asking you to help liberate a large sum from of money from that country by passing it through your bank account. You are assured that there is no risk and that you will be able to keep a considerable amount of the cash for yourself. But you must put some cash up front, which, of course, you will never see again. A surprising number of people are taken in by this, so much so that the scam is reportedly the third to fifth largest industry in Nigeria! Remember the old adage - If it looks to good to be true, it probably is. It's also worth remembering that There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Spam: Spam is the e-mail equivalent of junk mail. People who send it use all sorts of methods for finding e-mail addresses to send it to. Sometimes spam messages advertise genuine bargains or services; often their offers are suspect; frequently the contents are pornographic; too often, they carry malicious payloads, such as trojans or worms (Spam is often the result a worm doing what worms do).

Tracking Cookies: Cookies are little text files that many websites store on your computer. They are usually used to store information like your personal preferences (eg. Google stores a cookie that remembers how many “hits” you like to see on each page), or whether you have visited that site recently. One kind of cookie, though, is used by advertisers to monitor your browsing habits and help them to target advertising at you. These are not usually harmful but more of a nuisance - and they do collect information about you that you have not chosen to give.