Here's a test for scams: does it sound too good to be true? If the answer's yes, then it is.

But this is a good time for scamsters, with baby boomers looking for a place to park their money as they invest for retirement and a growing brigade of senior citizens investing retirement funds. Most likely scams for 2006 include affinity fraud, churning, dodgy oil and gas scams, getting personal information, prime bank schemes, high-yield tax free returns, pump and dump schemes and self-directed pension plans.

So how do you protect yourself? When does a scheme become a scam? The folks at Motley Fool give us six signs that tell us whether the investment is a scam: low-risk, high gain does not exist; don't fall for the line that if you don't invest today, it will be too late tomorrow; watch out for guaranteed rates of return and rosy predictions of the future; do a background check on whoever is making the offer; where's the prospectus?; don't go for "inside tips"