Microsoft Corp. recently completed an extensive consumer survey that revealed nearly one out of every five online U.S. adults (17 percent) has been a victim of at least one Internet scam, and 81 percent of those admitted they did something that led to the crime, such as opening an e-mail message that appeared to be from a legitimate person or company.

94 percent of spam-advertised online scams are hosted on individual Web servers, say scientists from University of California - San Diego.