The Indiana Attorney General’s office is offering ways to protect yourself and your loved ones, from scams.

Those include in-person scams like fake contractors or salesmen, online scams like lottery wins and phone scams such as fake threats from the Internal Revenue Service..

Amy Artis, outreach services specialist with the consumer division of the AG’s office, says there are ways to protect yourself.

“I often say, ‘It might be a scam, if…” Artis said. “It might be a scam if it seems too good, or too bad, to be true. Too good to be (true) is you have won $5.7 million dollars in a sweepstakes you have never entered, is too good to be true. Too bad to be true is that you owe a bunch of back taxes when you have always paid your taxes on time.

Artis said scammers often use high-pressure tactics on a tight deadline. She offered examples:

“‘You have to act right now. This deal is only good while we are in the phone. I am coming to the neighborhood and I have some extra supplies (or) I can cut your trees, but you have to decide right now,'” Artis said.

“So there is that pressure to make the decision immediately.”

And there is frequently a demand from scammers for money up front. For example, a caller saying you won the lottery but first you must pay taxes, or that a loved one has been injured and money must be sent before they can bet treated.

Artis spoke recently in Hope at the community health fair hosted by the Hope United Methodist Church.