If you’re reading agebuzz you probably fancy yourself an educated consumer, one unlikely to fall prey to scams or fraud. But that self-confidence is easy to pierce, given the ever-shifting scams that fraudsters perpetrate against even the most savvy. For example, since many of us wised-up to the fraud involving callers claiming to be from the IRS, the scammers swerved to instead pose as representatives from the Social Security Administration, pretending to be government employees and even creating fake Caller IDs to make you think the call is legit. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, your best response when you receive a call like this? Hang on to your private info and hang up the phone. To learn more about this latest scam, click here. And speaking of private info: Another new scam involves suckering you into a genetic test, praying on your fear of serious illness or your limited understanding of genetic testing. The scammers will tell you it won’t cost you a dime as Medicare pays for it, but in fact, they’re defrauding Medicare of millions of dollars and may also steal your personal info. So before you let anyone swab your cheek, stop and read here.

According to writer Liz Weston from NerdWallet, there are some additional new scams out there beyond the Social Security imposters. You may have already been the target of what are known as “sextortion” emails- someone claiming to have compromising or embarrassing info about your sexual behavior and demanding money so that your friends and relatives will not find out. Or, for those of you who fell victim to the “fake relative/grandchild in distress call”- there’s now a variation of this that lures you in by describing the kidnapping of a loved one. Ms. Weston makes clear you should delete the sex emails and hang up the phone on the kidnappers- and find out more advice by reading here. Finally, the biggest surprise when it comes to being scammed or financially defrauded? It turns out the likely culprit may be a loved one. According to new research from USC, financial abuse of older adults is more likely perpetrated by relatives than by strangers. So hide your wallet, shred your bank statements and put away your credit cards the next time your long lost nephew plans a visit!