"I will give you a free laptop and free $500 gift card absolutely free!!!"*

*Just complete a short survey (so we can get personal information from you to sell to spam e-mail companies) and complete a hundred or so offers that entail signing up for services and buying other stuff--none of which you want or need--that will end up costing you more than if you just went out and bought the laptop or the gift card with your own money.

I wrote an article a few weeks back entitled It's Not Free if You Have to Pay for It. In it I explained that the word free means "without charge". Yet, there are many unscrupulous people on the Internet who dangle the word free in front of merchandise and gift cards to entice you to click the link and make money for them.

Every service you try or product you buy makes money for the person whose banner ad you clicked. They only care about you to the extent that they can make some quick money from you. Even if you were to jump through all their hoops (and there is no shortage of them once you start jumping!), it will take weeks to get your free laptop or free gift card if you get it at all. (If you get frustrated with the process and close the window(s), they still have your personal information and will already be spamming your e-mail inbox. If you gave them your phone number, plan on getting some telemarketing calls, too.)

Okay, so what happens if you've already fallen prey to the scammers and are being spammed into submission? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the government agency that regulates commerce, including Internet commerce, has a website dealing specifically with the issue of Spam. Even if you don't have problems with spam right now, it is worth a look to see what you can do to deal with it.

As long as there is an Internet, there will probably be someone there trying to persuade you that you can get something for nothing--same as in real life, except the Internet affords to the benefit of anonymity with less cost to the scammer. When you see those ads, simply ignore them and encourage other people in your life to do the same.