The idea is this: The deficit has gotten so out of hand that the only way for the government to correct it is to devalue the existing currency and replace it with new money.

Of course, anybody left holding a lot of cash or cash - backed investments like certificates of deposit is going to get burned big time. That's why you'd better move quick and get your savings into gold. Or oil. Or cobalt. Or papaya plantations in Jamaica.

What you have just read is a typical set-up by a telemarketing scam artist, known as a "yak" in the criminal underground. If it sounded pretty plausible to you up until the last few words, don't be embarrassed.

Every single minute of every day, 10 Americans fall for the same type of scam. The victims range from sophisticated professionals to blue collar laborers. No one is immune from these creeps, and older people historically have been among the yaks' favorite targets. But as enforcement agencies have stepped up their efforts to nail swindlers who prey on the elderly, more and more of these crooks are setting their sights on businesses, especially small businesses.

Some scam artists target business owners with phony invoice schemes.

That's not to say that older folks are no longer targeted. In fact, while making up only about 12% of the overall population, people over age 65 account for more than 30% of investment scam victims, according to a spokesman for the House Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care.

"The con artists prey on people's fears about living on a fixed income, keeping pace with inflation, surviving tough economic times and being able to afford decent medical care," says an undercover fraud investigator with the New York State Police. "And they prey on people's greed."

With business victims, scamsters take advantage of a different set of circumstances, although greed can still be a factor. For one thing, many entrepreneurs are so busy trying to make a success of their ventures, they sometimes pay little attention to minor details. That makes it easy for crooks to run the "phony invoice" con. The business owner receives what looks like a legitimate invoice for a product or service that it normally uses, but it's not. Somewhere on the mailing there may be tiny print that reveals it is really a solicitation, but the boldest of these con artists don't even bother with that. Since the amount in question is usually small, the "invoice" is often paid and never questioned.

Business owners are often targeted for financial scams because they are thought to have plenty of money to invest -- never mind that most small businesses are struggling just to get by. Following are some common scams to watch out for. Remember, they are almost always offered over the telephone, so think fast and move slow whenever you are solicited in this manner.

* The gold mine fraud. The yak offers you a chance to buy gold at a steep discount because the owner of the mine is in a financial bind. He needs cash for drilling equipment or to buy out his dead partner's widow or some such ruse. Sometimes this scam is run with an oil well or silver mine.

* The film production company. The yak will send you glossy, star-studded promotional materials, an impressive- looking prospectus, movie trade magazines. He (or she; there are plenty of female yaks) may even arrange a telephone session with a "celebrity" investor in the company. Don't be fooled; the "celebrity" is really the yak's Uncle Harry.

* The air-time reseller. These scam outfits purport to buy air time on cable and low-power TV stations that they can resell at a handsome profit within 60 days. This can have particular appeal to business owners who may see it as a chance for cut-rate advertising exposure. Some sophisticated investors, including an heiress to the Georgia Pacific Railroad fortune, have fallen for this one.

* The rare coins dealer. While the victim generally receives absolutely nothing in most telephone fraud schemes, you might actually get some old coins in this scam. Problem is, they're just about worthless. One rare coin scammer was sending out promotional pieces using counterfeit letterhead of a well-known Wall Street investment firm until authorities shut him down.

The best protection against fraud is vigilance and a high level of awareness.

* Pension-related scams. Anyone in line to receive retirement benefits such as from a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plan, popular with small business owners, needs to pay close attention to this one. Retirees who have just received lump-sum payouts from their pension plans are also a favorite target of scam artists--for obvious reasons. This is a dicey area because even some otherwise legitimate operators tend to step over the line here.

While not technically a scam, one thing you should watch out for is something called pension maximization annuities offered by insurance companies. Under this plan, you are given the choice of taking a single or joint annuity option, to cover just your life or both your and your spouse's lives.

The joint option may pay $20,000 a year for as long as either spouse lives, while the single option may pay $28,000, but only for the lifetime of one spouse. A sales person may try to convince you to take the single option and use the extra $8,000 to buy life insurance to provide for the surviving spouse after your death.

That may or may not be a good deal for you, but it's always a good deal for the agent, since commissions on first-year premiums run about 50%. Obviously, the sales person in this case has more incentive to sell you that plan than to make sure it is really the best plan to meet your needs.

Other common telephone frauds include the phony sweepstakes scam and the prize-with-purchase rip-off.

There are two variations on the phony sweepstakes con. In one, the yak calls and says you have just won a trip to the Caribbean or some luxury resort. All you have to do, he assures you, is pay the taxes. In fact, you can do that right now by giving the yak your credit cared number.

Don't do it. Some hefty charges will materialize on your next credit card bill it you do, but your trip will be gone.

Another slant on the sweepstakes scam requires you to buy some merchandise in order to enter a contest. Anytime someone calls (or writes) and offers you a chance to win some great prize if you first buy something else, take it as a red flag. Hang up the phone or throw the letter in the garbage. You will have lost nothing except a chance to be ripped off.

The prize-with-purchase con also requires you to buy something. In this variation, some terrific premium like a "big-screen tv" or a "matched set of luggage" is usually dangled as the bait. But after purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of inferior merchandise, victims of this scam find the prizes don't measure up to the promises--if they exist at all.

Scamming business owners, older people and other individuals is big business. Consider that yaks defraud American consumers of about $7,500 a minute, while legitimate telemarketers generate only one-tenth that amount. According to a Louis Harris poll, only 31% of investment fraud victims ever even report the crime.

Unfortunately, investments that sound too good to be true almost always are.

Nine out of 10 Americans have received a direct mail pitch form an investment scamster, so if you haven't yet, you can expect one soon. Three out of 10--about 54 million people--admit to having responded.

Yaks go to great lengths to make their investments appear legitimate, chartering bogus banks, joining Better Business Bureaus, even doctoring videotapes of celebrities to make them appear like endorsements. They key new scams to the latest headlines. Watch out for investments that promise to capitalize on health care reform, AIDS, globalization of the economy and the Internet.