Despite countless warnings from federal, state and local officials, despite article after article in this newspaper and others, despite efforts by the AARP and other advocacy groups, senior citizens are still being fleeced out of their hard-earned money, sometimes even their entire nest eggs.

A U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging report said older Americans lose about $3 billion a year to financial exploitation schemes and scams.

Senior citizens often fall for any number of these ploys. One of the most recent that parted residents from the five-county Times News area from their money came to light earlier this month when an Allentown man and 400 others in the United States and Central America were charged by the feds with bilking hundreds of elderly residents of more than $1 billion over a 3½-year period.

Anthony W. Redd, 63, has been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering. He is scheduled for a court appearance on March 31.

According to federal authorities, Redd and his associates collected large sums of money using post offices in and around Allentown and New York City. Redd would take his “commission,” then pass along the remainder to his confederates in Costa Rica.

This is one of scammers’ favorites. Senior citizens, who believe their ship has finally come in by winning the lottery, continuously fall victims to these predators. In this scam, fraudsters generally contact victims by phone or through the mail to tell them that they have won or have been entered to win a prize, but before they can claim their prize they need to pay a fee. The Federal Trade Commission found these types of scams increased by nearly 50% since 2013.

U.S. Attorney William Barr said Americans are “fed up” with the constant barrage of scams. “They maliciously target the elderly and other vulnerable citizens,” he said.

I’ve compiled a list of the most prevalent senior citizens’ scams in addition to the lottery come-on.

One of the most prevalent at this time of year as the federal income tax deadline approaches involves bogus calls allegedly from the Internal Revenue Service, but, of course, they’re not.

The Treasurer Inspector General for Tax Administration has called the IRS impersonation scam “the largest, most pervasive impersonation scam in the history of the IRS.”

More than 2.4 million Americans have been targeted by scammers impersonating IRS officials, according to the agency. More than 14,700 have lost a total of more than $72.8 million. While there are variations, criminals generally accuse victims of owing back taxes and penalties. They then threaten home foreclosure, arrest, and, in some cases, deportation if immediate payment is not made by certified check, credit card, electronic wire transfer, prepaid debit card or gift card. How do you know it’s a scam? Simple. The IRS never makes initial contact by phone, always by mail.

The others are: (1) Identity theft to drain bank accounts, make unauthorized credit card charges or defraud the government; (2) bogus arrest warrants in which the victims are told that unless they pay up they will be arrested; (3) Social Security calls claiming to offer help in applying for benefits or medical equipment; (4) romance ploys linked to dating sites in which the scammer eventually asks for money; (5) grandparents are asked to wire “bail” money to release a grandchild who has been “arrested” or detained in a foreign country; (6) computer tech support where the scammer pretends to be affiliated with a well-known tech company and tells the victim his or her computer has been infected with a virus and tries to get remote access to the computer to steal passwords and other critical data.

There is a really easy rule of thumb, especially for those with caller ID: Don’t answer the phone if you don’t recognize the caller. Scammers are inventive by disguising their calls as someone from your area with the same prefix, but if this is a legitimate call, the caller will leave a message after which you can evaluate its validity.

Always tell solicitors who might get through that you never deal with, buy or give to anyone who calls or visits unannounced.

In the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) said, “Greed … is good …” Don’t believe it. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it generally is.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com