Earlier this year, I did an entry on where the next Enron was going to come from. Hedge funds, options trickery and Fannie Mae-style accounting shenanigans were put up as possible danger areas.

Another guide to future financial scandals comes from the Christian Science Monitor.

No surprises that hedge funds are there. But so is the mortgage industry, the insurance and healthcare sector and defence contractors and profiteers who have struck a bonanza in Iraq. The court decision earlier this year overturning the conviction of contractor Custer Battles is just one case in point.

Still, the one I always keep going back to is a piece from Fast Comany.

It ran more than four years ago but the advice holds just as true today.

They are pretty much the same rules that I use when I scan company accounts as a business journalist: watch for cash flow, not reported net income, treat acquisition binges with suspicion, keep an eye out for income-accelerating tricks, like booking revenues ahead of sales, talk to customers (I always talk to suppliers too), always watch out for stock sales by executives, and see how the CEO handles criticism.