Which of these is clogging your inbox right now?
1 Lotto Winnings
It wasn't that long ago we didn't have a national lottery in the UK, but since its launch it's quickly become an everyday part of life. Not only that, but you can also win the lotto in other countries too - all without ever buying a ticket! Quite why anyone would believe their numbers have come up in a competition they never entered is a mystery, but clearly this scam must have worked at least a few times for spammers to bother sending out this nonsense.
2 Million Pound Money Transfers
Having tons of money is something most of us can only dream of. But in spite of our poverty, we're pretty certain that the wealthy of this world don't have trouble moving their cash around. Surely one of the benefits of being rich is that you have access to specialist banking services and accountants, who can help you shift your money to Swiss bank accounts and launder it through Premiership football clubs. Yet spammers and scammers would have you believe that instead of the million other more qualified people in the world, they chose you, purely at random, to assist them in getting money out a foreign country. Nothing dodgy about that at all...
3 Fake Medicine
For many people, the prospect of going to a doctor to discuss an embarrassing or personal health problem is just too mortifying. It's no wonder, then, that so much spam email relates to medicine sales, from Viagra to haemorrhoid cream. Of course, if any of these services do actually sell you a product instead of just taking your money and running away with it while laughing maniacally, then it's likely to be fake anyway. At best, you'll get a pack of breath mints, but at worst, you'll be taking a completely unknown chemical that could very well be dangerous to your health.
4 Fake Dating
Love is a wonderful thing, but it's not always easy to find. Yet in spite of that, it's unlikely that any lonely, single women are going to be sending out mass emails to random men to ask them on a date. Nevertheless, spammers are quite happy to use this ruse, so again it must have worked at least once for them to keep doing so. Maybe we're being too cynical, though? Perhaps 'minxycat28' from Russia really could be 'the one'. Just be prepared to share her time with about four million other people.
5 The Dream Job
Want to get paid loads of money for not really doing much at all? Of course you do. And now, thanks to the internet, you don't have to become an elected MP to make it happen. No, you can simply accept one of the many fantastic opportunities that drop into your inbox every week. Best of all, you don't need any actual qualifications. All you need to do is hand over all your personal information to a complete stranger. What could possibly go wrong?