Sometimes it's a downright fraud, other times you're offered a legitimate product or service that's supposed to be good for the environment or your wallet, but is it?

This week we put green scams, energy fraud and conservation under the microscope and underline the importance of doing research before making decisions on everything from investing to recycling.

Before we begin, we recommend you check out this week's issue of Scamlines -- What's New in Scams?

Next, you may want to spend a moment looking at this week's most popular articles from our other sites:

Answers to 7 of the Biggest Questions About Photographing Fall Colors: An Interview With Jim Zuckerman: Jim shares his tips for photographing fall colors and what plays the biggest part in how m

Hurricane Gustav and now Hurricane Ike scams have already begun.

According to Computerworld, almost 100 domain names related to Hurricane Gustav were registered by Sunday, August 31, 2008, well before Hurricane Gustav hit land in the US. Although many of these are likely legitimate, many will also be used by scammers.

In fact, if Hurricane Katrina and other major disasters have taught us anything, it's that scammers will always try to make some quick bucks while others are suffering. And the bigger the disaster, the more scammers are at work.

Today we look at 11 categories of Hurricane Gustav scams and warn you so you can protect yourself.

First though, we suggest you check out this week's issue of Scamlines -- What's New in Scams?

Next, we r

Pet scams are on the rise. Sometimes the tricksters are after our money -- and the animals may not even exist. Other times they want our pets to sell for profit or experimentation. We show you their 7 most common tricks.

We think you'll first like visiting this week's issue of Scamlines -- What's New in Scams?

And before we begin, we encourage you to take a look at this week's most popular articles from our other sites:

Answers to 7 of the Biggest Questions About High Dynamic Range or HDR Photography: An Interview With Tony Sweet: Hear how Tony Sweet has taken HDR photography to new heights that are beyond the ability of the camera to record.

Keychain Credit Cards: Innovative or Defunct? Find out if keychain credit cards are the next generation in cr

Welcome to Scambusters issue #300! We're doing a Special Issue today based on a personal story to celebrate 300 issues -- to help over 12 million people protect themselves from Internet scams.

Even though we live in the age of digital data, we still manage to accumulate boxes and boxes of paper documents. They pile up over the years and sorting them is a daunting task.

And we can't just throw the ones we don't want in the garbage where criminals could find and use them. They must be destroyed by shredding.

In a Special Issue this week, Audri takes us through her own experience of dealing with this huge challenge for her mother's documents.

Before we get started, why don't you take a look at this week's issue of Scamlines -- What's New in Scams?