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Falling for a scam
Cost: $100 to you-name-it

Otherwise smart people can be no match for professional con artists, who are virtuosos at playing on people's vulnerabilities. Their scams cross into almost every area of personal finance: can't-lose investments you must grab now, fake health insurance that promises coverage for low premiums, incredible bargain prices for normally expensive goods or services.

You can lose your life savings in a financial scam, of course, and we've all heard the horror stories. But most people lose only a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. To find what's typical, we consulted the National Consumer League's Top 10 list of telemarketing and Internet scams.

At the low end of losses were frauds involving fake magazine subscriptions, materials sold to generate work-at-home riches, and fees related to scholarships, grants, or credit cards. At the high end were scams involving phony lottery winnings, political refugees wanting to move large sums of money to the U.S., and exaggerated returns on often nonexistent investments.

What you can do. Always check out the license, reputation, and references of any company or individual you're thinking of doing business with. Never respond to an unsolicited request for personal information, such as your Social Security number or online passwords, even if it appears to come from a business you know. Instead, call the company yourself. Be especially wary if you're nearing or in retirement, a prime age group targeted by fraudsters because, as the bank robber Willie Sutton once said of his own favorite crime target, that's where the money is.