A recent surge in scams targeting older adults has been occurring in Yolo County, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Reports by victims in Davis, Woodland and West Sacramento indicate that crooks continue to use phony sweepstakes scams and the “Grandma, It’s Me” telephone scam to trick people into wiring money out of the country.

In one instance, more than $4,000 was lost in a phony sweepstakes scam after a con artist pretending to be from the Federal Trade Commission convinced a local senior citizen to wire money to Costa Rica.

In another recent case, an elderly woman was tricked into sending all the money she had in her savings account to someone claiming to be her grandson who was in trouble and out of the country, District Attorney Jeff Reisig said.

These international scam artists use clever schemes to defraud thousands of people of their money. They use telephone, email, postal service and the Internet to cross geographic boundaries and trick victims into wiring money or giving out personal information such as bank account numbers, credit card numbers or Social Security numbers, he said.

The DA’s Office urges citizens to be cautious when asked to wire money out of the country for any reason. Verify information with a knowledgeable family member, friend or trusted adviser first, as it is not possible to retrieve the money after it’s gone.

For more information on how to avoid being scammed, contact the District Attorney’s Office at (530) 666-8180 or plan to attend the 2012 Yolo/Sacramento Fraud Awareness Fair in West Sacramento on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

This free event offers valuable information about popular schemes that people are falling victim to in local communities. The Fraud Awareness Fair will take place at the West Sacramento Civic Center, 1110 West Capitol Ave.

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