Money College: Avoid e-scammers on your next Internet marketplace adventure

Ah, the Internet: We'd be hard-pressed to name another invention that made our day-to-day lives easier, especially when it comes to exchanging goods, services and money without having to uncomfortably interact with anyone on the other end of the deal. And when you're a starving student, online haggling begins to feel like a fine art form as you explore a virtually endless sea of empty apartments, lightly used textbooks and part-time jobs just beyond our fingertips.

Unfortunately, the art of dealing with strangers online is never really one you can master, and that's probably a good thing. Case-in-point: Just last week, I was trying to sell an old iPod on eBay. The 'pod sold, and I was told by eBay to send it to an address in the United Arab Emirates. No problem, I thought, until I received a message shortly after from the site's control center advising me the buyer's account had been compromised.