Millions of people in today's society entrust their money to various financial markets with the aim of obtaining high returns or gains by taking certain risks or even simply by creating nest eggs so that they can benefit from them when their [retirement] day comes. Whether you are investing for short-term gains or planning for retirement, you are definitely taking a risk when you invest your hard-earned money. Investors should certainly make informed decisions regarding investment opportunities and carefully consider all potential investments. Unfortunately, as we have seen recently with Enron and Bernie Madoff, some companies and/or individuals among us attempt to take advantage of what they see as an opportunity to make easy money. Essentially, these companies and/or individuals commit some type of financial fraud to hide their “rob Peter to pay Paul” schemes (Musée de…, 2010). This epidemic [of financial fraud] is not something new in the world. In the financial world this has been around for a while and some scandals actually date back to 1792 (Beattie, nd). “Since then, scandals have surfaced throughout American history, sparking outrage and often spurring reforms to ensure that similar events never happen again” (Museum of…, 2010). The only difference is that in today's financial world, there are many more creative types of schemes, such as Ponzi schemes and embezzlements, in the financial markets, creating financial burdens for the millions of investors and businesses who depend on the returns from these investments. Today, "we face an irrefutable challenge: finding solutions to the growing threat" of financial scandals, also known as "white-collar crimes"....... middle of paper .... ../www.soxlaw.com/Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved March 1, 2011 from http://www.sec.gov/index.htmSilverstone, H., Sheetz, M. (2007). Forensic Accounting and Fraud Investigation for Non-Experts (Second Edition). Hoboken, New Jersey; John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Accessed March 3, 2011, from http://books.google.com/books?id=cr7tMOsTdqAC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=financial+fraud+affects+unemployment&source=bl&ots=UDLX1nBg&sig=EnljfLYG8dtmI2DQ2uaAxvQK3NU&hl=fr&ei =kihwTfKE4H7lwfb7ZCdAQ&sa =X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=falseThe Madoff scandal. (2009). The biggest fraud the world has ever seen.TheMadoffScandal.com. Retrieved March 2, 2011 from http://www.madoffscandal.com/Wolfe, M. (2010). Types of financial statement fraud. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from http://www.ehow.com/list_7396545_types-financial-statement-fraud.html