After the Bernie Madoff scandal broke, the real million dollar question was, how could anyone be so gullible to turn over their entire life savings to a man who they knew so little about? Naturally hindsight is 20/20, but the more important question is, in these tough times, how many of us are letting our guard down and setting ourselves up to be victimized, too?

According to the North American Securities Administrations Association, in just the first five months of 2009 alone, there has been a twenty percent jump in the number of investment scams offering outsized