Most commonly experienced types of fraud

Premium rate phone calls   - 34% of adults
Direct mail                           - 33%
Home working                     - 28%
International lotteries          - 16%
Bogus clairvoyants             - 10%
Pyramid and matrix schemes - 6%
Reported in a BBC article

So, how might you be parted from YOUR money?  The following list is not original, but it should be more widely understood.

Remember in EVERY CASE, scam e-mails go to billions of addresses - sometimes they get lucky and find yours - you are not as special as the silk-tongued (silk-penned?) scammer might have you believe.
Your own bank or other reputable organisation NEVER sends e-mails asking for personal details (e.g.) “to be confirmed for their records” - your bank may be many things but they are not that forgetful!

1.  Advance Fees: Like the Nigeria 419 scam - someone offers you a share of a major sum - all you have to do is pay a small amount to help administer the transfer of that money to you .... don’t be silly.

2. Bogus Lotteries: “You have won a zillion pounds on a foreign lottery” - pay an ‘administrative fee or give us your bank details and we will send your winnings’. 

3. Share Scams (Boiler Room or ‘high pressure’ scams) - e.g. “A truly GREAT stock is coming on the market; if YOU move quickly, you can have your share.  Please send money to us to secure that share” - that means sending your bank details, which can mean giving away ALL YOUR SAVINGS.  Have your really spent years building up your future security only to give it some stranger - throw it out the window if that is the case!

4. Criminal Cashback fraud - beware a fraudulent buyer of your goods! It works because cheques take longer to clear than electronic bank transfers.  A buyer agrees to pay your asking price, but sends you a cheque or banker's draft for a larger sum.  He then asks you to bank his cheque and send him a money transfer for the difference. The cheque bounces but your money order clears before you can react.

5. Gambling syndicates. Gamblers like to believe they can benefit from ‘insider knowledge’ that beats the bookies. Gambling is based on pure chance - why pay someone who cannot change that fact?

6. Land banking.  The ‘tempter’ is an idea that if you buy a modest and affordable portion of some valuable land - it will soar in price when suddenly it goes to developers.  You are gambling they are telling the truth - all they risk is getting seriously rich on the back of many many gullible people.

7. 'Make a Million' seminars. That know something “secret” and “fool proof” - you are having a laugh!  The first seminar could even be free .... but the ‘real deal’ will cost you more once the fish-hook is in your lip!

8. Phishing - Crooks send billions of spam e-mails and only have to land a handful to make it worth their while.  They appear to be from legitimate institutions with a yarn that they need you to give up your banking details and passwords or other personal information.  Thank you very much, that will be an empty bank account in short order. 
If you bank with a trustworthy organisation - they already know everything they need to know about you and don’t need to ask you for it again! 
Don’t even open e-mails of this kind and NEVER click on links in these e-mails. 

9. “Ponzi”. Pyramid selling - it never makes sense.  Ponzi was a person from the 1920’s who took millions of dollars of the gullible.

10. Timeshare scams.  Just be very, very cautious when someone tries to sell you a place in the sun!  If you go to a “seminar”, be prepared for some ‘hard sell’ tactics and some emotional blackmail. Be even more prepared to leave and don’t be intimidated if you do want to leave.  This   is YOUR money that someone else wants a piece of - if your cash didn’t come to you easily, why should it go easily?