The typical victim of a scam is a white female between 70 and 89, according David Leach, Principal Examiner at the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection in Augusta. Often, she is managing her finances for the first time.

Anybody who can answer the door, pick up the phone or respond to an email can be the victim of a scam, said Leach, but for a variety of reasons, the elderly are targeted most, partly because they grew up in a time when honesty was expected, even from strangers.

Leach will talk at St. Andrews Village Aug. 12 at 1 p.m. about how people, particularly people over the age of 60, can avoid being the victims of scams.

With the rise of technology, scammers can operate from the house next door or an island in the Mediterranean. Often they use disposable track phones or route calls through computer lines to make them untraceable.

That makes it difficult for law enforcement to stop the scammers at the source. The best way to fight back, said Leach, is to hang-up, delete or shred when contacted. Most importantly, as scammers become ever more sophisticated, people need to be able to spot them.

One of the more popular schemes right now is called the grandparent scam, said Leach. Scammers will call in the early hours of the morning to catch the victim off guard and tell them their grandchildren are in jail in Mexico (or another country) on drug charges, and pressure them to wire money immediately. Leach suggests feeding the scammer false information – an incorrect name or description of the grandchild to test them.

Another scam, called “catfishing,” is more common around Christmas or Valentine’s Day, when people are more likely to be lonely. Using a false social media identity, the scammer will develop a relationship with the victim through emails and phone calls and eventually propose coming to meet the victim — if the victim can just wire them money for traveling expenses.

One of the biggest problems right now is a fake debt collector schemer, in which a scammer calls and refers to an old debt, a pay-day loan or an outstanding balance on an old credit card. The victim is told the balance has grown to thousands of dollars but they can settle the debt for a fraction of the total.

If the victim won’t pay, the scammers may become profane, call the victim’s neighbors or their place of work. The victim will sometimes pay the money just to avoid the harassment, but if they do, their name goes down on a “sucker’s list,” which makes it more likely they will be contacted by the next scammer.

The best way to avoid being on that kind of list is to hang-up, delete or shred, said Leach. Or, if you are so inclined, he says there is nothing wrong with wasting the scammer’s time.

“These criminals are getting paid by how many people they can call,” he said. If the would-be victim can waste the scammer’s time, they can make the scam less profitable and they may even be put on the scammer’s “do not call” list.

For more information about how to avoid scams or for a free antic-scam guide called “Gone Phishing” call the Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection at 1-800-332-8529. For more information about this event at St. Andrews Village, call Bob Drury at 207-633-0920.