Madoff's alleged fraud has apparently shook the world. More so because it is stated to the world's biggest financial fraud till date.

However, it is interesting to know that despite increasingly stringent legislation aimed at combating fraud and increased enforcement efforts by government agencies, the world is hardly seeing any reduction in the number of financial frauds. Instead it is increasing by the day.

Here we take a look at some of the world's top financial frauds:

1) Madoff fraud

New York hedge fund manager and Wall Street legend Bernard Madoff has been charged with what could be the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Madoff had apparently planned to carve up his last $३००m (२००m) between friends, family and employees before making the shocking confession that his investment prowess was really the result of one of the world's biggest ever frauds.

But, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the ७०-year-old could not implement his plan before his huge pyramid scheme - whose १०-१२% annual returns had attracted top-flight investors around the globe - collapsed with losses of at least $५०bn.

The alleged victims span from the super rich, to pensioners and powerful financial institutions, to local charities. Some investors claim they've been wiped out, while others are still likely to come forward. Among the world's biggest banking institutions, Britain's HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Man Group PLC, Spain's Grupo Santander SA, France's BNP Paribas and Japan's Nomura Holdings have reported to have fallen victim to Madoff's alleged $५० billion Ponzi scheme.

2) Enron

As a result of the massive fraud at Enron, an energy company based in Houston, Texas, shareholders lost tens of billions of dollars. Many Enron executives, Enron's accounting firm and certain bank officials were indicted. Andrew Fastow, Enron's former finance chief, testified that many of the bank's transactions were contrived, deceptive deals done solely to create the false appearance of profits and cash flow.

Kenneth Lay, the founder of Enron whose spectacular implosion in २००१ lead to one of the biggest fraud cases in history, was convicted of fraud for duping investors over the health of Enronङs finances before it plummeted into bankruptcy. Prosecutors accused Lay of pocketing over ४० million of investors' money, and Lay was charged with ११ counts of securities fraud.

3) Charles Ponzi

It was one of the biggest swindlers in US history. In one of Charles Ponzi's early scams around 1920, he offered investors a 50% return on their money in 45 days, or a doubling of their money in 90 days. By February 1920, Ponzi's best-known scam had taken in $5,000, by March, he was up to $30,000.

At that time Ponzi began hiring agents to expand his swindle. By pushing his impressive high rate of return, he could often persuade would-be investors to send money. In May 1920, he was up to $420,000 and by July 1920, he was up to millions.

About 40,000 people invested about $15 million all together; in the end, only a third of that money was returned to them. Ponzi was indicted on 86 counts of mail fraud and sentenced to five years in prison in 1920.

4) Parmalat

A massive financial scandal involving Italy's largest food company Parmalat underscored the fact that corporate fraud was not just an American problem. With the disappearance of about $10 billion in declared assets, the scandal was one of the largest in corporate history.

Parmalat collapsed in December 2003 under 14 billion euros ($27 billion) of debt, after uncovering a 4 billion euro hole in its accounts. Some dubbed the episode 'Europe's Enron'. It is currently estimated that at least $17 billion of Parmalat funds have simply disappeared and cannot be accounted for.