Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey wants seniors to be on guard for scammers looking to bilk money and personal information from older Americans and Medicare beneficiaries.

The Consumer Resources section of the Mass.gov website sounds the alarm on a variety of scams and identity theft tactics used within the state, but among them is a warning bulletin on Medicare scams acutely targeting senior citizens.

But even if you aren’t a resident of the Bay State, Medicare scams, like many scams affecting seniors, are only increasing across the country, so it’s wise to be on the lookout no matter where you live.

According the Mass.gov site, though these scams come in a few different flavors, most rely heavily on social engineering techniques to convince a victim to provide sensitive information for the purpose of identity theft.

These con-artists will call, mail, or otherwise contact their victims with bogus credentials, phony official documents, and say anything they need to convince the target to give up information–including threatening the target with loss of Medicare benefits if he doesn’t sign up for a drug benefit and promising prizes or money for signing up to some new drug plan.

The problem is those taken in by these scams don’t know Medicare will NEVER call and ask you for your personal information–nor does your enrollment in Medicare prescription benefits affect your other benefits one iota–and they don’t know promising cash and prizes for enrolling in a drug plan is highly illegal.

Just knowing these simple facts, however, could spare the next potential victim from financial heartbreak.

The Attorney General’s official website offers several ways you can spot a Medicare scammer before you’ve been taken for a ride, as well as some of the most common ways Medicare scammers try to take advantage of seniors.