There are a lot of scams out there that have gotten very practiced in their methods of separating honest people from their hard earned cash. There isn’t one of us who hasn’t been taken at one time or another.
Even a small thing like driving your car to a local restaurant for their weekly special, only to find out the deal wasn’t that great, and to top it off, on your way out you notice you left your car lights on, your battery’s dead and now you need raleigh roadside assistance or a tow truck to take you home.
The point being, things can escalate quickly and can turn into something much bigger like the housing debacle of the recent past where you found yourself trusting the wrong people with your investment and lost a bundle. I think the overall awareness and subsequent paranoia grew exponentially starting back a few years ago with Enron which boldly and flagrantly took people’s monetary futures away.