The ease of maintaining anonymity on the internet, as well as all sorts of new technologies and a wealth of opportunities to mislead people, has resulted in an ever-increasing danger of being a victim of identity theft, inadvertently getting involved in money laundering, and coming face-to-screen with other scams online. Money laundering scams come in all sorts of forms.

You may well have received an email which is purportedly from a Nigerian millionaire, asking for your bank account details so that they can transfer US$14.3million to you. If it's not a Nigerian millionaire, it could be a pastor in the United States, or a doctor in Zimbabwe. The emails are usually phrased in cod-legal language, and tend to refer to you as "My Friend" or "Valued Business Partner". Most people realise that these are poorly disguised scams to get your bank account details and/or launder money, but some still fall foul of them. If you are sent one of these emails, don't hesitate to forward it to the provider of the sender's email address; Yahoo!, Hotmail and others routinely shut down email addresses which have been used to attempt money laundering activities.

Some scams are more tempting and harder to detect, however. For example, PayPal/eBay users might receive a request that they become the UK or US representative of an individual wishing to use eBay in some distant location – Estonia, perhaps – where, they claim, they are not allowed to set up an eBay account themselves, and cheques take too long to process, incurring a high rate of interest from local banks. The recipient of the request is told that they will receive 10% of their Estonian correspondent's earnings if they will use their PayPal account to collect and transfer payments for goods.

Of course, the scam is that the customer never gets the goods they paid for on eBay, so you have to pick up the flak when they don't receive their purchases. It's unlikely you'll ever see the promised 10%, either.

Internet job sites can often harbour nasty surprises in the form of money launderers offering too-good-to-be-true "work from home, earn £500/week!" jobs. The thing to bear in mind is that no honest or legitimate employer would hire you to use your personal bank account to process the transfer of funds. If this is what is being suggested, you should report the poster of the job offer. Sometimes you might even receive emails that look like they're from an official job website, in which the sender purports to wish to employ you, having seen your CV. Again, if you are asked to use your personal bank account to transfer money, you should be aware that this is probably a scam.

You may also see offers of jobs repacking goods and sending them on. These goods are almost certainly stolen, and you will be paid your wage and postage costs with a cheque which will bounce.

The following are general rules of thumb to remember:

- If you are approached directly and offered a job or partnership, check the credentials of the organisation that the offer comes from, and email the organisation to ask if they conduct these sorts of offer strategies.

- Report anything suspicious to the relevant organisations (email providers, job agencies, etc.).

- Never accept a job where you are required to lie.

- Never accept a job where you are required to use your personal bank account to transfer funds.

- Never accept a job if you suspect that you may be asked to handle stolen goods.

- Remember that participating in money laundering scams and other fraudulent activities is illegal, and ignorance is not an excuse. There are severe penalties for assisting in these kinds of activities, including gaol sentences.

By Helena Henderson

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