Looking out for an aging parent or elderly neighbor is something many people do. A dramatic surge in phone scams, notable for targeting the elderly, is a new threat that deserves more attention — by seniors themselves and by those looking out for the seniors in their lives, whether aging parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or neighbors.

Seniors tend to be trusting people. This might be a quality that comes with age or from growing up in a more innocent time. But seniors and the people who care about them need to know that criminals are using telephone scams to take advantage of them and steal their money.

An article in the Wall Street Journal last week reported that there are efforts in Congress to fight phone scammers by pressing phone companies to block robo calls.

Today’s computer-controlled telephone technology has turned phone scams into an assembly line crime. Caller ID systems cannot detect the scammers because they can post bogus phone numbers, while sometimes working from overseas locations.

The Journal reported that complaints to the Federal Trade Commission about unwanted telephone calls have jumped 41 percent in the first four months of 2016, hitting 1.7 million.

Robocall systems can make thousands of calls a day, and as soon as someone picks up the phone, a con artist at the other end will answer and begin their scam to get money from an unsuspecting senior.

Some of the phone scams targeting seniors across the country have been reported in Butler County.

One of the most common scams targeting seniors is known as the “grandparent scam.” This usually involves what sounds like a call from a panicked young person claiming to be a grandchild stuck in New York City or Los Angeles after being mugged or involved in a car crash. The young person pleads for money to be sent — but also warns the targeted grandparent not to check with the caller’s parents to see which grandchild is traveling because, the scammer says, the parents will be upset.

Scammers reportedly look at Facebook postings and other social media to make their calls seem legitimate.

Another scam targeting the elderly, and others, involves someone claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service saying that money is owed immediately, otherwise legal action will be taken.

In this case, the IRS says it never contacts taxpayers by phone — only by mail.

Another threat to seniors, and nonseniors, involves scammers on the phone telling seniors they have won a lottery, but need to send money to pay for fees and taxes before they can collect millions of dollars in winnings.

As convincing or frightening as the grandparent scam or the IRS scam might be, people need to be warned that there are aggressive and convincing criminals out there. Crooks and scammers have been out there forever, but modern technology lets them target many more people and from a remote location, often outside the United States.

Sadly, everyone needs to be skeptical these days when contacted by phone and asked to send money. Seniors and the people who care for them need to know about the many convicing ways today’s crooks will try to take their money.