A multitude of Madoffs

By The Economist online

Swindling people who trust you is more prevalent than you might think

MISTRUST of mainstream finance is all the rage. But lean economic times also make get-rich-quick schemes more tempting, and desperation breeds gullibility. As investors in Bernie Madoff's funds found out to their cost, frauds are more prone to exposure in a weak economy—when it becomes clear who has been swimming naked. The FBI is currently probing 1,000 cases of investment fraud, more than double the number in 2008. Meanwhile America's Securities and Exchange Commission filed more than twice as many Ponzi cases in 2010 as in 2008.