"If you would like to be removed from this mailing list please click reply and include your name, address, Social Security # and date of birth so we can verify your identity."

The obvious intention is to obtain gullible people's social security numbers, which can be a first step in a possible identify theft attempt. Identity theft occurs more frequently than people imagine, and it can leave them broke and with bad credit - a mess that can take months or years of effort to clean up.

The message that asks the recipient for help in investing 16 million dollars from a bank in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire from "Mrs Jessy Makenze" has been going around the Internet for the better part of a year now. It, too, represents a scam attempt, as do similar letters from Nigeria and other nations in Africa. One recent variation claims to be from " Moses A. Kabila the son of the late Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Desire Kabila of the blessed memory" and purports to come from Spain.

If someone calls you or emails you and asks for the password to your system, "just say no." Attackers sometimes make up very elaborate and convincing stories to try to obtain passwords from others. Once they have your password, bad things are in store for you.