Online scams continue to flourish and in many cases, re-invent themselves.

We've all received the Nigerian emails promising millions in exchange for sending a few thousand dollars to the emailer to process the paperwork.

A couple of other oldies but goodies have recently nearly convinced clients of ours to part with their money.

In one case, a client received a phone call from a "representative" of Dell. The "representative" told her that Dell tech support detected a virus on her computer and that they needed immediate access to her computer to remove it or her computer would crash.

My client was shaken, first that someone from Dell could see what was happening on her computer, and second, when the "representative" practically threatened her by telling her that he would continue calling her every day until she allowed him to access her computer to "remove the virus".

The veiled threat and the caller's foreign accent raised enough suspicion in the client that she called me with her concerns that her computer was infected, but mostly, she was concerned that Dell tech support could see what was going on in her computer.

I assured her that this was an age-old scam (it used to be "representatives" from Microsoft making these calls), that the scammer couldn't see what was on her computer, and that I would come check her computer for her peace of mind.

She avoided being scammed, but it still cost her money for me to come out and verify that she had no infections.

In another case, a client received a phone call from her "grand-son" that he had been arrested for speeding while on a fishing trip to Canada.

This type of scam seems to have picked up steam lately with a number of variations on relatives or friends being stranded in foreign countries and needing money to get out of jail or get home.

In this instance, the caller knew the grand-son's pet name for his grandmother. The caller requested that the grandmother go to the nearest Western Union and transmit $4,000 to get her grand-son out of jail and back to the states.

The caller was so convincing that the client actually went to the nearest Western Union with the money.

It wasn't until the Western Union representative became suspicious of why she was sending the money that she decided to call her son, who told her the grand-son had not been on a fishing trip to Canada and was likely at work. She called the grand-son's work number and sure enough, he was there.

What made this particular scam so convincing was the caller's use of the grand-son's pet name for his grandmother. Most likely, this was culled from an email that a hacker broke into.

Scams are everywhere online, including Craigslist, where you will see pictures of beautiful luxury cars for $5,000 or $6,000 (the picture is someone else's car and if you are diligent, you will see that the same car shows up for sale in various cities across the country).

To learn more about common scams, visit this page on the Federal Trade Commission web site.

Also, if you are scammed, don't let the scammers get away with it. Too many people fail to report these scams because they're so embarrassed that they fell for it. If you're scammed, report it (details on the FTC page above).