We asked you to write in and tell us stories about scams you’ve encountered and you flooded our inbox with some pretty horrific experiences.
John from Miami, Fla. emailed us with a particularly striking story. He lost $150,000 to a Ponzi scheme run by a lifelong friend and unwittingly got several members of his family caught up in the racket as well.

Hillary and Jim from Birmingham, Mich., wrote to us to tell us how they were scammed out of cash by an automated ordering scheme through their L.L.Bean credit card. 

Toni  wrote to us on Facebook about a time she and her fiance used Craigslist to hire movers and got taken for a ride along with their furniture.

And Marie from Winthrop, Mass., wrote to us via the Public Insight Network. Several years ago she purchased her first home in Southern Maine, a fixer-upper in a nice neighborhood. She now realizes the broker, the seller, the closing attorney, even the home inspector were in cahoots during her deal.

Click play on the audio player above to hear those stories and the lessons you can learn from these scams.

We want to hear from you, too. Submit your personal finance question by filling out this form and it will land in our email inboxes. Next week on the show we’ll be talking about money and travel, so send your travel-related questions our way.