The Federal Trade Commission has identified the 12 scams most likely to arrive by e-mail. Watch for them and delete them.

1. Business opportunities that make it sound easy to make money without much work or cash outlay and without selling, meetings, or personal contact. The scam: These are illegal pyramid schemes masquerading as legitimate opportunities.

2. Bulk e-mail offers to sell you customer lists and automated software so you can solicit others. The scam: Sending bulk e-mail violates the terms of service of most Internet service providers and using a false return address, as some automated programs allow, may land you in legal hot water.

3. Chain letters asking you to send a small amount ($5 to $20) to four or five others, replace one of the names on the list with your own, and forward the message. The scam: Chain letters are almost always illegal and participants lose their money.

4. Work-at-home schemes that promise steady income for minimal labor (envelope stuffing). The scam: You’ll pay a small fee to get started, then learn the sender never had real employment to offer. Instead, you’ll be told how to send the same envelope-stuffing ad to other suckers.

5. Health and diet scams offering pills that help you lose weight without exercising or changing your diet, herbal formulas that liquefy fat cells, and cures for impotence and hair loss. The scam: These gimmicks don’t work. Successful weight loss requires a reduction in calories and an increase in physical activity.

6. Get-rich-quick schemes that offer profits by exchanging money on world currency markets; newsletters describing easy-money opportunities; the perfect sales letter; and the secret to making $4,000 in one day. The scam: If these systems worked, wouldn’t everyone use them?

7. Free goods offers that require a fee to join a club, after which you learn that to earn the goods you must recruit more participants. The scam: These are pyramid schemes with the payoff going to the promoters and little or none to participants.

8. Investment opportunities promising outrageous rates of return with no risk. Many are Ponzi schemes, in which early investors are paid off by later investors. Early investors believe the system works, so they invest more. The scam: Ponzi schemes collapse because eventually the money stream trickles.

9. Cable descrambler kits that promise cable television without paying. The scam: The device won’t work because cable TV systems use technology these devices can’t crack, and even if it worked, stealing cable TV service is illegal.

10. Guaranteed home-equity loans that don’t require equity in your home and unsecured credit cards, regardless of credit history. These are often combined with pyramid schemes offering to make you money if you enlist new participants. The scam: The loans turn out to be useless lists of lenders who will turn you down if you don’t meet their qualifications, the credit cards never come through, and pyramid schemes always collapse.

11. Credit repair offers to erase negative information from your credit file so you can qualify for a credit card, auto loan, home mortgage, or job. The scam: The crooked promoters can’t provide you with a clean credit record and may be encouraging you to violate federal law. If you lie on a loan or credit application, misrepresent your Social Security number, or get an IRS Employer Identification Number under false pretenses, you will be committing fraud.

12. Vacation prize promotions claiming you have “won” a fabulous vacation for an attractive price. The scam: The cruise ship may look like a tugboat and the hotel accommodations will be shabby.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast COMBAT-Maine Center for the Public Interest, Maine’s membership-funded non-profit consumer organization. Individual membership $25, business rates start at $125 (0-10 employees). For help and information write: Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329.