It would be easy to sit here and talk about how the banks were running the biggest scams of them all with the subprime lending fiasco, but there are some scams floating around now that are targeting the people who have already suffered through the recession. Here are just a few:

The fake check scam. This one usually targets people who are trying to sell an item. Sometimes the item can be a big ticket purchase like someone who is trying to buy a car from you. The person trying to scam you will make you an offer that will be very hard to refuse and pay with what appears to be a cashier’s check. The check will typically be for more than the agreed amount. At this point, the scammer will ask you to cash the check and give them the difference.

When banks cash bad or fake checks you become responsible and will have to pay that money back.

This also happens a lot in regards to the Nigerian scams that have been going around the internet and popping up in your email for years.

Work from home scams have also been going around and targeting those who are desperate for work. You will often see these jobs pop up on job boards like on Monster and HotJobs. Many work from home job posting are frauds. You’re not going to make the kind of money that is promised by stuffing envelopes. And there probably isn’t a huge market right now for arts and crafts.

Of all the email scams phishing scams are the trickiest. The emails don’t say that they’re from a Nigerian prince or that you’ve won the lottery. What they do say is that there is an alert from your credit card and that you need to login and fix the issue. MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE LINK. Whenever you have doubts about a website, type it into your address bar yourself instead of clicking the link. Phishers will send you an email that looks completely legitimate and when you click it and enter in your real information, you have just given them your login information for your bank or credit card account.

The last one I’m going to go into will be the foreclosure rescue scam. Foreclosures are everywhere these days; it’s a trend that no one wants to follow. Everyone who has fallen or is slipping into foreclosure wants to make sure that they don’t, so they will go to any means necessary to do so. This is where this scam comes in. It is typically a business that approaches people saying that they can save the family’s home. They charge a huge up front fee and do nothing. Worse than the fee, sometimes they have the victim sign the house title over to them.

According to the National Consumer’s League, these are the top 10 scams right now:

1. Fake Check Scams
2. Internet: Gen Merchandise
3. Prizes/Sweepstakes/Free Gifts
4. Phishing/Spoofing
5. Nigerian Money Offers (not prizes)
6. Business Opportunities/Franchises/Distributorship
7. Advance Fee Loans, Credit Arrangers
8. Friendship & Sweetheart Swindles
9. Internet: Auctions
10. Lotteries/Lottery Ticket Buying Clubs