Each year, the Federal Trade Commission puts out a list of the top consumer fraud issues. ID theft is by far the No. 1 complaint. In fact, the FTC gets 4 times more complaints about ID theft than they do about anything else. Last year, there were 260,000 individuals who filed ID theft complaints with the FTC. The most common sub-complaint in this field is people opening credit cards under your name; followed by a sharp rise in people opening utilities using your identity; and finally, people using your identity at a place of employment. There's no marketplace solution to the ID theft problem yet. Clark says the best thing you can do is freeze your credit.

Here are the rest of the FTC's consumer fraud issues: Advance-fee loans (No. 10); timeshares (No. 9); healthcare claims (No. 8); Internet auctions (No. 7); computer equipment and software (No. 6); prizes/sweepstakes and lotteries (No. 5); foreign money offers (No. 4); Internet service complaints (No. 3); and shop-at-home/catalog sales (No. 2). The important thing to realize is how many people are determined to separate you from your money. So be cautious and careful to not fall into these traps.