Marketwatch columnist Chuck Jaffe has an excellent piece about the frequently fraudulent high yield investment programs (HYIP's) that litter the internet. Known for promising outrageous returns (10%+ per week in some cases) and given only vague details about how they earn their returns, these "investments" are most often Ponzi schemes.

I recently interviewd convicted felon Barry Minkow, who is now founder of the Fraud Discovery Institute, working tirelessly to protect investors from scams. In his new 3-part DVD series about protecting yourself from fraud (look for it on his website when it is avaialable) the DVD featured sections on investment fraud, elder fraud, and affinity fraud, and is both informative and entertaining. In talking about investment frauds (such as HYIP's), Minkow urged investors to think of it this way: Warren Buffett is considered arguably the greatest investor of all time, and he compounded money at a rate of about 23% per year.

Anytime someone offers you better returns, ask yourself: are they better than Warren Buffett?