The incidents of seniors being taken advantage of by identity thieves and scam artists are on the rise in Indiana, according to the AARP.

Mandla Moyo, community outreach director for the Indiana branch of the AARP explains.

“If you look at the attorney general over in 2014, they received over 5,000 calls alone,” Moyo said. “And essentially 1,300 of those were about identity theft. It is really, really a prevalent issue here in Indiana. It is a scam that a lot of scammers take the opportunity to use because a lot of times it is easy to victimize someone in terms of how to steal their identity.”

To highlight the issue of scams that hit seniors, AARP will be having a special event in Indianapolis on Thursday, Aug. 28th featuring Frank Abagnale, a former scam artist and FBI consultant whose life story was made into the movie “Catch Me If You Can.” Abagnale will be at the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Tobias Theater from 7 p.m. to 8:30 Thursday. The event is free but you must RSVP to attend by calling at 1-877-926-8300.