JaCo Sheriff's Office hosted identity theft protection event Tuesday night

Medford, Ore. — The number of scams coming into Jackson County are skyrocketing.

That’s why the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office hosted an informational forum Tuesday night.

It highlighted computer scams and fraud and how quickly you can become a victim.

Detective Eric Henderson said there’s been more than 40-thousand calls reporting scam, fraud and identity theft to date this year alone. That’s compared 54-thousand calls in all of 2013.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, reports of fraud, scam and ID thefts have risen significantly.

Henderson says technology is mostly to blame “As technology improves, the people who are trying to take advantage of that, rely on that new technology to commit the fraud.”

KOBI-TV is partnering with the AARP to host a free event called Scam Jam on how to protect yourself from scams.

Scam Jam is Tuesday May 13th at our Medford studios on Fir Street.