Here are some of the best-known financial crimes currently being seen by the authorities and what you should do to keep away from them:

• Senior citizen scams - All kinds of investment opportunity schemes, retirement programs, annuities, diamond investment schemes and even Medical fraud are created to target seniors. Many senior citizens are financially secure; a lot of thieves want their money. Older people, as a group, tend to be less wise about the use of the World Wide Web and about such scams in general, so if you are over sixty five, be careful with any investment promotion.
• Commodities fraud - Commodities fraud is a risky way to lose all of your money in a hurry. You may get offers to make you wealthy by investing in precious metals, foreign exchange (FOREX) investments or one of many other commodities. With instability overseas comes people claiming to offer monetary security via non-traditional means. Many, if not most promotions for unusual investments come with satisfactory reports from people who have made huge sums of money quickly.

• Charity schemes - If you are unsure if a caller representing a charity is for real, request that they send their information by mail, but don't be shocked if the person on the other end just hangs up. Criminals participating in a charity scam will ask for a donation by credit card; if you give them your charge card number they will use your card to make other purchases. Charity fraud and scams are a form of phone or telemarketing fraud, where the crooks call on the phone, claiming to be soliciting cash for some cause or natural disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina.
• "Phishing" e-mail scams - Scam e-mail messages vary, but often appear to be legitimate e-mail messages from Wells Fargo, Citibank, Ebay and others. E-mail messages that are intended to trick people frequently indicate that a security breach has taken place and that the recipient of the message must follow a link and submit some financial or personal information in order to correct the problem. Phishing is the name for sending out a huge number of e-mail messages that purport to be from financial institutions. Real banks won't send out e-mail inquiring about your Social Security number. If you receive an e-mail request that you are in doubt about, call the authorized institution. Phishing messages may seem real, but they are fraudulent and are only created to entice you to provide some criminals with personal or financial information, such as your Social Security number or credit card numbers.
• Identity or credit theft - Criminals will do nearly anything to get their hands on your Social Security number or charge card numbers. Protect your personal information carefully and be sure to check your credit report to spot check for peculiar activity in your name.

As long as there is cash to be earned by taking advantage of people, dishonest people will be finding new ways to do it.