Cunning Cons

 

Sid says there are things you can do to prevent yourself from falling victim to scam artists:
 

• Be suspicious of any e-mail that comes from a company but has a Yahoo or a Hotmail address, instead of the company's address.
  
• Be suspicious of correspondence asking you for money.
  
• If you take a check to the bank, make sure you wait until the bank hears that the funds have been collected. Do not just let them tell you the check has cleared.

Get more advice from Sid on how to avoid identity theft.

"I know we're going to get a letter from somebody saying that Nigeria has a lot of wonderful people. You don't have to send the letter," Oprah says. "We already know that. We're just talking about this particular scam that's going on. We're not talking about the entire country and everybody in the country."