During the middle of an October day in 2011, Edgecomb's Jo Cameron received a phone call.

Her grandson Ben, a 14-year-old from Connecticut, said he had been traveling with friends to Canada for another friend's funeral. On their way home, trouble arose when they were stopped at the border and found with several bags of marijuana.

“He said 'Please don't tell my mom,'” Cameron said. “He said all of his friends had been bailed out, but he couldn't afford it. He asked if I would bail him out and keep it secret from his mother.”

Cameron said she agreed and sent the money via wire transfer to a company in California that was supposed to handle the bail proceedings.

However, there was one problem. The real Ben was still in Connecticut. The “Ben” on the other end of the line was a scam artist.

“He was fishing for information,” she said. “At the time, it all seemed so reasonable.”

The money was sent and Cameron happened to call her sister in California to verify the company that would be handling it.

“She said 'This sounds like a scam,'” Cameron said.

The transfer was scrapped and the money was returned to Cameron. The real Ben was fine and not in any trouble.

The Camerons were the victims of what the Maine Attorney General's website calls the “Grandparent Scam,” where a scammer poses as a close relation to obtain information and try to gain access to money or other vital information. The Maine AG suggests never to give out personal information over the phone or to wire money.

Cameron said that she and her husband Bruce went with the scam at first because the voice on the other end of the end sounded enough like Ben to be believed. His mother had also gone to school in Canada, which established a connection across the border.

But, that is only one scam levied at unsuspecting individuals.

Linda Conti, Chief of the Maine Attorney General's consumer protection division, said that if something seems too good to be true, it typically is. To compound matters, one response may garner many more pieces of junk mail or bogus calls.

“I tell people to not open (that piece of junk mail), don't pick up the phone,” she said. “You only get more if you respond.”

When a response is given; whether it is to spam on the Internet or to a phony sweepstakes through the mail, other scammers pick up on the information and begin bombarding inboxes and mailboxes, Conti said.

Some of the fliers are official-looking envelopes that often mimic charities, nonprofits and other establishments, such as Publisher's Clearing House.

The best way to combat a scam is to not respond and never, under any circumstance, send any money, Conti said.

Another frequent scam is the sweepstakes scam, in which a mailer is sent out and lets the recipient know that they have already won an exorbitant amount of money, but a small processing fee is required to obtain the cash. The envelopes tend to appear official and ask for a check or money order to be sent to a post office box.

But these are scams. The “Sweepstakes” don't exist and don't have phone numbers or websites attached. “Free” sweepstakes that require a money order are scams.

If a scam is sent or mailed, call the Lincoln County Sheriffs at 207-882-7332 or the Maine Attorney General's office 207-626-8800, which recommends never responding to phone calls, emails or mailings from unknown sources.

Ben Bulkeley can be reached at 207-633-4620 or bbulkeley@boothbayregister.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BBRegisterBen.