It may not be an every day, gotta-go-there site, but Internet Scambusters is worth a bookmark and maybe a once-a-month perusal.

Shoot on over to the Scambusters site every so often, and you'll get an idea of the evil that can be perpetrated when criminals get access to electricity and silicon chips. This e-zine is put together by Audri and Jim Lanford, a Maryland couple who have a passion for exposing the Web's seamier side. The site exposes a lot of the old tricks of con artists -- with names like the "809" and "Nigerian fee" -- that have been given new life on the Web. It presents well-written warnings about email hoaxes, urban legends and spam scams with a new article every month. And it will help you sort the real virus scares from the phony ones.

The layout is simple -- the main page presents a large collection of headlines. Click on the story in which you're interested. That's it.

Best bets: Current issue: Here's where you find the latest scam waiting to be busted. Written in a staccato no-nonsense style (I can almost hear Jack Webb saying "Just the facts, ma'am"), Scambusters shakes a finger every month at the latest Web-based rip-off artist. What to do if you're scammed: This page provides good preventive advice, plus it will help you whine, whine, whine if some evil scamster whaps you upside the head. An extensive page, it gives both before-you're-scammed and you've-been-scammed-deal-with-it sites.