It takes a community effort to prevent our elderly neighbors from being the victim of scams.

DeWitt County TRIAD is still seeing the elderly being the target of scams and Tony Harris says the challenge is scams are always changing. He believes it is important for local authorities to stay up on the latest in scam trends.

According to Connie Unruh with TRIAD, the grandchild/grandparent scam is still catching people. This scam plays on the emotions of an elderly person who thinks a grandchild is in trouble. Unruh points out, it was believed this scam had run its course but it is still popping up.

The local scam alert hotline through the DeWitt County Sheriff's Office is 217-935-9507. Harris and Unruh remind residents if you are unsure about any phone call you get, do not give out personal information, hang up and call the Sheriff's hotline to give them the details and talk with them about if the call is legitimate.