The Internet Crime Complaint Center, also known as IC3, is a partnership between the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. They accept online Internet crime complaints, offer tips on how to protect yourself, and explain ongoing illegal Internet schemes. For example, the Nigerian Letter is also known as “419″ because that’s the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that it violates. “Beware when asked to assist in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.

When choosing an anti-virus program for Windows, the independent Virus Bulletin’s testing and review program provides invaluable information about which programs pass muster. The top 100 antivirus programs (along with those that didn’t make it) are found in this VB100 summary ( . To view the test results, you will need to register. Registration is free.

OnGuardOnline.gov is a federal website with practical tips on securing your computer and guarding against Internet fraud. Information is delivered with videos, tutorials, and games designed to test and expand your knowledge. Topics include laptop security, social networking, malware, identity theft and much more.

As handy as USB thumb drives can be, their small size makes them easy to lose. Tim Fehlman, of Daily Cup of Tech, has worried about the possibility and come up with a clever solution. He explains how to install an auto-executing program that will automatically pop open a “Send Me Home” message if your lost drive is plugged into a computer. He even suggests offering the finders a brand new thumb drive that is twice the capacity of the found one.

Computer scientists at Carnegie-Mellon University have found using games to educate users about phishing scams is more effective than expecting us to read security manuals. As part of their research, they developed Anti-Phishing Phil, an interactive game that explains how to spot phishing cues in emails, and when to use search engines to find legitimate sites.

The best defense against spoof (fake or phishing) emails is to be educated and informed about how to spot them. eBay has a good tutorial on how to protect yourself, as does Stop-Phishing.com from the University of Indiana. Number one tip: when visiting a site in response to an email that asks for some web action, do not click on the link in the email. Instead, navigate to the company site independently, either by looking it up in a search engine, or getting the URL off a billing statement.

In recent months, e-card spam infected with a virulent computer worm has increased. How do you tell the difference between a valid e-card and a virus? Never open a greeting card sent from an unnamed friend, neighbor, classmate, schoolmate, partner or family member. Two things to look for are whether you know the sender, and the kind of link they are asking you to click. Learn more about the Storm Worm at Information Week and this Chris Pirillo Video .

The NetSmartz Workshop is an interactive, online safety resource for kids, teens, parents, educators, and law enforcement. Created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, NetSmartz uses video and downloadable, printable activity cards to teach Internet safety to kids of all ages.

As the use of fast broadband connections has increased, so has the use of online backup services to safeguard important computer files. A handful of online backup services even offer free plans, among them Mozy, Xdrive and MediaMax. For more on online backup, read Ask Bob Rankin.

As the holidays approach, Internet shopping scams are on the rise. One simple thing you can do to protect yourself is to upgrade your browser to the newest version. Firefox now blocks sites that are known for phishing scams. Internet Explorer warns against suspicious activity even before sites are added to a blacklist. For more online holiday security tips, read PC World .