Securities fraud covers a wide-ranging set of possible crimes, ranging from stockbroker scams to a company's misstatement of financial statements (generally to overstate profits, or try to hide costs or debts). Securities are regulated by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), who has been working to reduce the potential for fraud by investigating and prosecuting securities-related scams, as well as requiring better audited company performance.

A current area of interest in securities fraud includes preventing insider trading (in light of Martha Stewart's involvement and others), and buttoning down company financial statements to prevent widespread securities fraud such as was seen in the case of Enron, Global Crossing and other companies.