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Police are warning of several new scams in the Puget Sound area.

The first involves scammers who are trolling online guest books for the recently deceased.

Here's how it works: The scammer contacts the grieving relatives. Using the deceased's last name, the fraudster writes a note, looking for the next of kin. Once correspondence is established, the scammer then hits the victim up for unpaid debts, or a purchase the deceased is allegedly still on the hook for.

It's a despicable scheme, but one police say you need to be on the lookout for.

Another scam that we've been seeing a lot lately around here is an email from someone claiming to be an American soldier serving in Iraq, who has come across $225 million worth of Sadaam's loot.

"What typifies this scam is that there are a number of things that you need to do", says Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, "Ending with you needing to put up money. So, you need to put up 10, 20, 40 or 50 thousand dollars. This is a scam where there are millions and millions of emails sent out. Only a tiny number of people will fall for it, but the dollars are large."

McKenna says this fraud is a reboot of the old "Nigerian Prince" email scam, dressed up in new clothes. It's not very sophisticated.

But some scams being perpetrated on social networking sites like Facebook, are becoming more common.

A few months ago, we told you about Bryan Rutberg, a Microsoft employee, whose Facebook account was hacked into. The scammers posted updates pleading for money, saying that Bryan had been robbed overseas, and needed help. One of Bryan's Facebook friends actually wired some.

"I felt horrible, of course." Bryan says. "here, someone had used our freindship as a basis for him to open up his big heart, and , unfortunately, his wallet."

That type is scam is on the rise, experts say, with facebook accounts being hacked while the owner is one vacation. Fake updates are being posted saying they have been robbed, asking for money in the same way.

And another popular social networking site is shwoing some cracks in security as well. The accounts of two Twitter employees were recently hacked, and the hackers were able to access account information of some high-profile Twitter users, such as Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears.

The hacker says he gained access to the accounts by guessing the Twitter employees' passwords. That's a good reminder to chnge your passwords often, and vary them from site to site.