The internet is a great place to research potential investments, but you must be very wary of any potential fraudsters looking to pull in your money. The SEC has a tremendous website on how to avoid internet investment scams, which shows some of the areas that fraudsters use to lure in investors. There are numerous investors online looking to push their stock pick, in order to make a quick 
handsome profit and then sell.
Internet newsletters is an area you must be careful with. There are numerous internet newsletters in which the writer heavily promotes a certain stock, often penny stocks, that they have recently bought. The newsletter acts as if it is just looking to make you, the investor some money, but in reality the editor is simply looking to make them a great profit. The actual practice of writing a newsletter touting a stock is not illegal, but federal securities laws require companies to disclose who has paid them, and the amount and type of payment. The majority of internet newsletters do not do this, they simply lie about payment, and keep trying to lure in unknowing investors. The bottom line is that you should be very careful before you trust an internet newsletter that is heavily pushing any particular stock, because their motive is usually not good.
Email scams are becoming far more frequent as the years go by. Spam emails are so cheap and easy to create that they have become an absolute favorite for fraudsters. Spammers often send personalized messages out to thousands of known investors all at once, telling them of a great new stock pick they have found. It is my policy to delete any personalized emails containing a new "hot" stock pick, since I know the stock is unlikely to do well, and the person writing the email is scheming.
You should also be very wary of any investment scheme who claims to have a "guaranteed" huge return. Risk-free returns that are very high are too good to be true. If you want a virtually risk-free return stick to treasury bonds, or CD's. The pyramid scheme is another one that has been around for years, and the internet provides a great vehicle to promote those scams. Any email you receive telling you that you could make thousands of dollars working from home is likely a scam. There are some companies who pay you to work from home, but they are highly unlikely to be sending out mass emails.
Keep your eyes open for investment fraud on the internet. Internet investment fraud is an ever increasing problem, that is not going to go away anytime soon. You need to be very discerning of the investment advice you receive over the internet. As new frauds come up, I will try to alert readers about them to keep them in the know.
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