Consumer advocates and securities regulators are bracing for a surge in fraud schemes directed at older investors, as 75 million Americans turn 60 over the coming two decades.

Experts say the Baby Boomer generation, the first to include retirees with large sums of money in 401(k) retirement plans and IRAs, will attract a swarm of schemers willing to use trickery and high-pressure tactics to sell bad investments, and in some cases, simply commit fraud.

Authorities say they want to gear up to prevent scams aimed at older people.

"It's one of my highest priorities," said Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who was in Chicago on Friday to speak at a conference titled the Senior Investor Protection Symposium.

There is a spectrum to the deceit. At one end, there is what Cox describes as the "free lunch seminars," ostensibly meetings offering free food and advice on estate or financial planning. Actually, they represent a technique for finding older people with assets, potential victims for dubious investments.

At the other end of the spectrum are the outright frauds, like the Ponzi scheme of an Arizona businessman, Robert Dillie, who raised $54 million from 500 elderly people, promising to invest the money in stocks and bonds. Instead, Dillie spent the money on a lavish lifestyle and gambled away millions of dollars. Dillie was sentenced to a decade in prison last year in connection with the case.

Cox doesn't see much distinction between the techniques used for getting money from retired people.

"The result often feels the same," he said.

Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, said losing money through a scam is painful for anyone but potentially disastrous to an older person.

"It's the lack of time to recover," Roper said. Retirees often don't have the time and opportunity to rebuild their assets the way people in their 30s do.

Research shows some common characteristics among victims, said Elisse Walter, senior executive vice president at NASD, a private-sector regulator of the U.S. securities industry.

"More men than women are victims of investment scams," Walter said. Victims also tend to be better educated and more self-reliant than average and to be active traders, she said.

Louise Renne, an attorney who practices elder law, said one of the most common schemes involves seminars purporting to offer free estate planning and a living trust to avoid problems for heirs.

"The senior will often disclose their assets," Renne said.

The trust document is delivered by a salesman who pitches a deferred annuity, a kind of investment that often carries high fees and locks up money for a decade, a particularly unsuitable investment for anyone over age 60.

"They will bring flowers, they will bring candy," Renne said. "They will say, 'Don't tell your children about this.'

"Unfortunately, it's very widespread," she said.

Sometimes the threat starts as innocently as a telephone call.

"End the conversation," advises the NASD Investor Education Foundation. "Simply tell a caller, 'I am sorry, I am not interested. Thank you for calling. Goodbye.'

 Then hang up.

Although fraud artists have a number of ways to get phone numbers, there is a way to reduce the calls. A toll-free call to 888-382-122 will get one placed on the federal do-not-call registry for telemarketers.

In Illinois, the attorney general's office is suing a company called Senior Benefit Services of Kansas Inc. for consumer fraud in connection with its sales practices toward older people.

According to the lawsuit, Senior Benefit mailed postcards to consumers offering free information on topics of interest to older people.

One version of the direct mail pitch is headlined "Change in Your Medicare Benefits." It promises to give the recipient free information on ways to save money if they just mail an attached reply card and give their signature, birthdate and telephone number.

Later, the consumer will receive a call from a telemarketer to determine if the person is between 55 and 85 and has assets of at least $100,000, the lawsuit says.

Senior Benefit then schedules an appointment with the person, the lawsuit says.

"Senior-citizen consumers believed they were scheduling a meeting to receive free information from a senior-citizen advocate, when in truth and in fact they were scheduling an annuity sales presentation," the lawsuit says.

The company has sold annuities worth $29 million, the lawsuit says.

An attorney for Senior Benefit Services declined to comment.

Rebecca Pruitt, assistant attorney general in the Springfield consumer-fraud bureau, said victims are unaware of who they are dealing with.

"Some people may think they are from the government, or a senior advocacy group," Pruitt said.

"Based on what I have seen, they are usually getting sold to people 70, 75 and up, which is the worst," she said.

Not among them is Howard Bernstein, a 71-year-old retiree who lives in Skokie.

Bernstein said he would never respond to a cold call and stays away from investments he doesn't understand. Instead he reads financial journals and studies SEC filings.

"I do my own research," Bernstein said. "It gives me confidence."

Avoid Scams

Hang up when a stranger calls with a financial offer.

Never make a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Talk about the offer with someone you trust.

Be wary of free seminars on estate or living-trust planning.

Avoid investments that sound too good to be true -- they are.