It’s hot where I am this day. It’s the middle of summer, muggy already here in the always-cool Northeast. Not a day conducive to pondering what, if anything, I can do about the high cost of living, the high cost of prescription drugs or a myriad other serious issues that affect senior citizens.

I’m still not sure how many people are running for president, but I figure the pack will slim down when the money runs out. Personally, I like the guy who’s the D.A. on “Law and Order” – Fred Thompson. But if he formally announces his candidacy, I understand that all the reruns of that program in which he appears will be pulled from television, given the “equal time” rule. Another issue to deal with. So far, I have heard very few candidates address important senior citizen concerns.

Along with the crowd who wants to be president, scam artists are in full bloom this summer. When I turned the computer on this morning and checked the incoming messages (only one at 5:30 a.m.), I see that the IRS wants something. Always wary for messages from people with names like Timbuktu, I see no reason to suspect something from the IRS is a scam, but this certainly appears to be questionable. What do you think?

The message is from a Francis V. from the Refund Operations Department of the IRS. Francis V. tells me I am eligible for a tax refund of over $100. He wants only two to four days to process it and if I give him my checking or savings account number or Visa or MasterCard numbers, it will be deposited directly to my account.

Scams are getting more and more sophisticated and one of the major targets (because it works) is the population aged 65 and over.

If you, like many of us older people, have e-mail, please be very suspicious of any message that is from some address you don’t recognize. And if you’re curious enough to read these instead of trashing them, do not “click” on the e-mail address, which is sometimes within the message because if you do, you can trigger some kind of Internet technology, which automatically hooks your name, and address to other places, which will also send scam messages. Just like junk mail, trash these suspicious messages.

The real IRS is aware of this fraud (and there are others using the IRS name), and has issued press releases to try and make people aware of the scams, but publishers may often ignore the two-page releases. So advice from this senior citizen is to call your local police department. They usually have someone who is up to date on current scams. The problem is the source of this criminal activity changes so quickly. I’ve heard of being on your toes, but I never thought when I got to be 70 years old, I’d be on my toes continually.

So we can add the IRS scam to the list which now includes fortunes found in African countries and Europe; soldiers who have found fortunes and then died, leaving all that treasure to be rescued; and children with incurable diseases who have one last wish.

If you have access to the Internet, just go to Google and type in Scams or Snopes and find out more about current scams and along with that, articles about another kind of scam, alleged cure-alls.

On these hot, muggy summer days, I prefer to be where it’s cool, a tall glass of iced tea in hand and a good book waiting, not being besieged by scammers. Let me know if you get a suspicious scam-sounding message. We like to keep other seniors up to date on what’s going around.