While scams are nothing new to residents and law enforcement, many times those items come through the mail or telephone.

While many scams target the elderly, criminals are always devising new ways to defraud not only individuals but also businesses and other organizations including school districts.

A new warning from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine says that several Ohio schools are the targets of an invoice scam for books that were never ordered.

It is important, even within a school system, to have financial plans in place to ensure they are not the victims of a scam.

Within most organizations, there are several layers of a payables process for invoices that provides some protection that would allow for a fraudulent invoice to be caught before a payment is written.

The attorney general offers these tips for organizations to avoid possible scams:

• Encourage your treasurer to watch for invoice scams.

• Make sure the invoice is coming from a valid source.

• Check out the company that is sending the invoice.

• Centralize purchasing and billing so that the person or persons paying the invoices know what was ordered and who the vendors are.

• Do a basic Internet search to see if other organizations have reported similar problems.

Those who want to break the law will continually devise new ways to dupe honest individuals, business and organizations.

Arming yourself with information and ensuring due diligence is done through research before making a decision or paying an invoice is always the best protection.