Its important to draw a distinction between the true 'scammer' and people who through ignorance, inexperience or bad judgment promote products that are simply not commercially viable in the longer term. Poor commercial judgement that ends up causing losses, is quite different from deliberate intent to defraud. We all make mistakes.

You can avoid trouble by learning from the experience of others. As you surf you will notice that some membership sites and business opportunities won't accept join-ups from particular countries because of the high incidence of fraud they have encountered. I make a mental note of these and as a general rule avoid joining sites that are located in those countries, or have language and site content indicating the operators might be based there. 

I'd guess though that about the same proportion of con artists can be found on the internet, as you find in the general population. It can seem as though there are more of them, but you need to remember that you are being exposed to literally thousands of new contacts every week, via emails, surfing, your own advertising, forum postings and the like.

This is a far higher rate of personal contact then you experience in your normal off-line life. It stands to reason you will come in contact with more of the wrong sort of people simply because of the sheer number of contacts you make.

Most of the time you will be okay if you apply the same commonsense rules you use in your everyday life.

Want to see some scammers in action?

The fastest way to learn about scammers is see how they go about it. Happily, there is an underground movement of anti-scammers who work hard at turning the tables on these ratbags. And they have some fascinating tales. For some hilariously funny stories that will teach you a lot, visit this scambuster website , read some of the stories, and scroll down for some scambusting tips.