Actually, when all is said and done, their is only one way not to be scammed: Be suspicious, very suspicious. Even then you will probably get fooled occasionally. The variety of attacks on our money is so vast and some so complicated that it is pretty hard to know all the tricks and traps.
I have done some literature research on marketing as practiced by retailers. The essence is that large amounts of money and time are spent understanding human psychology and then using that knowledge to entice people to buy whether they need the product or not. These little internet scams are penny ante compared to that.
Last edited by ModeratedUser150120149; 11-17-11 at 11:57 AM.