Avoid being Scammed

Don’t become an online victim Use Cyber Street-Smarts

Use a gender-neutral username/e-mail address
Use a free e-mail account such as Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) or YAHOO! (www.yahoo.com) AOL (www.aol.com) for newsgroups/mailing lists, chat rooms, IMs, e-mails from strangers, message boards, filling out forms and other online activities
Don’t give your primary e-mail address to anyone you do not know or trust (see above)
Instruct children to never give out their real name, age, address or phone number over the net THIS RULE OF THUMB APPLIES TO ADULTS AS WELL.
Don’t provide your credit card number or other information as proof of age to access or subscribe to a web site you’re not familiar with
Lurk on newsgroups, mailing lists and chat rooms before “speaking” or posting messages
When you do participate online, be careful – only type what you would say to someone’s face
Don’t be so trusting online - don’t reveal personal things about yourself until you really and truly know the other person
Your first instinct may be to defend yourself - DON’T - this is how most online harassment situations begin
• Don’t fall for phishing e-mails that claim your account has been suspended or needs to be updated - it’s a scam!
If it looks too good to be true -- it is