I just got an email from Google Voice saying that my "Google Voice forwarding phone needs to be verified within 30 days". What the deuce? Is it legit or some phishing scam? I've read enough of your articles to know that I need to be paranoid about links in any email message. So what's the story, Dave, legit or bogus?

I just got an email from my bank - Wells Fargo - that says "Wells Fargo Bank technical department is performing alert upgrade to improve the security of our online banking notifications as part of our enhanced security measures". Not suspicious, except the next line says "This is mandatory validation exercise for all Wells Fargo Bank customers. During the database upgrading exercise we discovered a credit advice of a substantial inflow in your favor." What? Is this legit? I clicked on the link and it sure looks like Wells Fargo, but I'm scared to proceed in case it's some criminal phishing hack or other.

I keep getting email from different organizations claiming that if I join their auction I could buy an iPad for $20 or less, or even win one for the cost of entering the sweepstakes! Tempting, but do ya think it's legit, Dave?

Is this a phishing scam? I just got some email that looks suspicious with a link to "paypal-labs.com" Is it a scam or phishing attempt? Why can't they just make it paypal.com?

I just got email from a domain registration company in China claiming that they've received a request from a local firm to register our domain in their area. They suggest that we register our domain there first, but I'm a bit skeptical. Does it really matter if we have foo.cn and so on, and is someone really trying to register our domain in the first place?

I just got email from my system administrator saying that my Webmail account is out of space. This is really confusing, though, because I don't access my email via the Web. Is this legit or some sort of scam or phishing attempt?

Dave, help! My daughter got an email saying she can make up to $15,000/month doing basic data entry on her computer and when she dug into it, she found that she needed to pay $199 to "register" with the service. I'm super, super skeptical and she thinks I'm just a pessimist. Is this legit or a scam?

I was trying to sell an old laptop on Craigslist and got so confused trying to differentiate between legitimate and scam offers. For example, one guy from France offered to send me a money order and let me cash it before I sent out the computer, and was willing to pay more than I was asking. Another said he was happy to pay via Paypal if I just sent him my Paypal account ID. Were either of those legit? If not, how do the scams work?

I'm anxious: I just received an email from Runescape saying that I needed to validate my account credentials. It says "We have information regarding you attemping to buy or sell your Runescape account. This is against the Terms of Use you agreed to when you created your account." What's up? I haven't done that!

I've been poking around on eBay and am astonished at the range of products available. From books that've been out of print for decades to celebrity signatures, and more, it's awesome! But I have heard that a lot of what's for sale on Ebay is a rip-off and that a lot of people get taken. How can I avoid the bad guys?

I need to find the sender of an email I received that was a death threat and the domain was @gmail.com. I have contacted the police and fear it will take too long for them to find out any information. Is there anyway you can assist me? The email address was deadlykillers61@gmail.com.

Dave, I got a cashier's check in the mail from a mystery shopping company. They say that I am to cash the check, wire $2000 to someone in Canada, and evaluate the service at the wire company. I get to keep $300 out of the check for a couple of hours' work. This sounds sweet, but a friend of mine said it sounds too good to be true. Hey, it's a cashier's check, so what could go wrong?

Hi, It's a bit embarassing to ask this thing. I know what is eBay and that's all. Please tell me how does it work? I heard a lot about scams in eBay. How can I avoid them? Thank you so much.

I am amazed how many people on eBay and such sites can sell dozens if not more of gift cards "claiming" to be worth a mystery amount, is this a scam? Also, I see people bidding on them for $500 dollars that reach near that amount and the sellershas dozens of them? How can anyone afford to lose money and purchase such high dollars amounts? where is the profit in that. I am tempted to bid but but something is fishy about those auctions. Where do they get all those gift cards? thanks for your time, dave

Hello, I've read your comments on recovering passwords or accounts like on Yahoo. I started investigating this when I suddenly found my own password was not working and the secret question had been changed by whoever hijacked the account. Do you have any advice for me aside from creating a new ID? I hate to say it but I'm considering trying to hijack it back.