Putting a Lid on International Scams: 10 Tips for Being a Canny Consumer: “Mass marketing fraud is a significant source of income for international crime rings. Con artists ignore geographic boundaries to reach out to potential victims by phone, email, postal mail, and through the Internet, and then trick them into sending money or giving out personal information. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, Americans report losses of more than a billion dollars a year to these frauds. To be sure, con artists can be clever, but many can be foiled by knowledgeable — and equally canny — consumers. Here are 10 things you can do to stop a scam…”