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Identity theft is fast becoming on of the top threats consumers face today. With more folks using the internet and email each year, scammers are taking to the cyber-waves in an effort to take your identity and your hard earned cash.

So what can you do to protect yourself? Knowledge is your best weapon of defense. Knowing what to look for and what to avoid can help you steer clear of trouble.

Here are some tips for avoiding scam emails, also know as phishing emails:

1. If you receive an email from a bank or financial institution asking you to confirm your login information, it is scam. Be very wary of ANY email that request or requires you to specify any personal information. Most reputable financial institutions would never ask for such information over email.

2. Take note of who the email is addressed to. Is it "Dear Customer", or is it you exact name? Does the email contain any information that would tell you they are really your bank? For instance, do they show the last 4 digits of your account number? Generic emails addressed to "anyone" with no proof of authenticity should be discarded and ignored. In fact, you can even report such emails to the actual bank or financial institution they are trying to masquerade as.

3. Does the email contain any links? If so, analyze the links carefully. Often you can simply hover your mouse over the link and see the destination URL in your status bar. Don't ever rely on where the link says it is pointed to in your email. Often scammers will encode a different URL/address in the actual link, but the text will show a legitimate bank address. If you click on it, and notice your web browser takes you somewhere else (for instance the URL goes to a generic IP address - 182.22.23.233), then you can be pretty sure it is a scam.

4. A fourth rule of thumb is to review the grammar of the email. Often phishing or scam emails come from overseas, and you will see a number of grammatical errors. Broken sentences, bad grammar and poor spelling are all signs of trouble. If you notice these, again, just discard the email, or mark it as SPAM in your email folder.

As a general rule of thumb you should never use links from e-mails to sign-on to any account that you are not 100% sure is legitimate.

When in doubt, your best bet is to call your bank or financial institution to confirm.