I was reading a news articles written about an identity thief who was sentenced to seven months in jail and five years probation for stealing over thirty people's identities.  She did it by posing as a fake business, and people mailed in applications, exposing their names, addresses, and social security numbers.  Also, she would go stand in the unemployment line and "shoulder surfed" which is looking over someone's shoulder, looking at all of their personal info.  With the stolen information, she would then go and apply for store credit cards with her name and id, but with a different address and social security number.  Scary stuff, hah! 

We need to be equally aware to scam artists as well.  I was reading an
article today about an elderly woman who spent nearly $400,000 on a
scam.  It's a well known scam, the email from Nigeria, telling  you
that there's a long lost relative who has left them millions, and they
need some money to be able to process and send it.  First the lady was
demanded to send $100, but the inheritance kept going up, and in hopes
of getting the Nigerian fortune, she kept sending more money over the
years. She even spent her husband's retirement and basically did
everything she could out of greed basically.  Her friends and family
tried to tell her to stop, but she wouldn't listen.  She's now speaking
out publically about her story, letting others know about scams.

OMG I would feel like such a fool if that happened to me and I sent money. I think fi theys aid its a long lost relative and things like that and they made it really believable like I really believed it I would just fly down there and get the money myself rather than sending and sending and sending money and not getting anything back.