Internet users are being warned of a fraudulent e-mail in circulation promising a government stimulus check. The e-mail comes complete with a large smiling face of President Obama, inviting you to “click here for a free stimulus check in the amount of $613.27”. It is a good idea though to have some spam protection set up in advance in order to avoid some scammers looking to take some of your money.

However, when you click on it, it only takes you to a site offering multiple products for sale. Movies, weight loss tea and subscriptions to various programs are among the products listed. In fact, there are fourteen pages of products to choose from.

The e-mail was brought to light when 83 year old retiree, Vivian Bonnema received the e-mail in her inbox and became suspicious. Suspecting it was a ruse attempting to take her money, she contacted WCCO-TV.

She expressed her concerns over the apparent efforts gone into the e-mail to make it look like an official government message. She was concerned others might think the e-mail was real. She referred to the deceptive message as “sneaky”.

Bonnema was smart to trust her judgment. Although the spam message was not sent as a malicious attempt to steal information or a trick to covertly install harmful software, it still represents an attempt to dupe people into buying said products.

The Federal Trade Commission is aware that these types of spam email are rampant. They have been attempting to crack down on all of them via the Federal Spam law. This law bans the use of “deceptive and false” advertising on the internet.

However, the FTC acknowledges that tracking down the sender of these e-mails often proves to be difficult. They advise users to take advantage of their spam filters which allow your system to send these types of items directly to a spam folder which will be deleted.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which was recently signed into law does not include a stimulus check for Americans. This endeavor however will give U.S. taxpayers an increase in their paycheck. Beginning in June, Americans should start seeing an increase of about $12 a week. This is a far cry from the $300 to $1200 check many households received last year. But, in this economy, even an extra $12 a week sounds pretty good.