Scam artists want to take what you've got. Brian Roche wants you to keep what you rightfully earned.

Roche is a full-time consumer investigator for local television station WGAL-8. Personable, knowledgeable and genuine, Roche has made a career out of helping viewers and listeners avoid the seemingly unrelenting onslaught of hoaxes and scams.

"What I want (the consumer) to learn is how to spot the scams," said Roche. "Money is the root of it. What I've learned over my career is that two things motivate people: power and money. In this case, it's money."

On April 24, the Manheim Township resident brought his message of awareness to Lititz.

Roche addressed an audience of older local residents at the Lititz Senior Center, 201 E. Market St., Lititz, about how to identify and combat the current wave of fraud being perpetrated through phone calls, text messages and emails. The hourlong address included a question-and-answer period, as well as slideshow presentation.

In addition to his consumer protection work on WGAL, Roche makes about five or six presentations to similar community groups across Lancaster County each month.

"Seniors have time; they're home and near the phone," said Roche, who's been employed at WGAL for 22 years, 20 of which have been dedicated to his current role. "Seniors are susceptible to it because they don't understand the technology. We grew up in a generation that was trusting. Our parents taught us to be nice, to give people the benefit of the doubt. Scammers take advantage of that trust."

According to the spam-blocker app RoboKiller, 78 billion spoofed - faked or hoaxed - phone calls were made in the United States in 2022 alone. But last year was also the first time that scam texts outnumbered the sham phone calls.

Those scam artists prey on emotions. Among common scams Roche listed "Must act now," "Your relative left you money," "Mystery shopper," "You won the lottery," "We have detected a problem with your computer" and scams related to rentals. Scammers may also pose as representatives of the Social Security Administration or the IRS. He said that the scammers' preferred methods for extorting money are store gift cards and digital currency like bitcoin.

"Don't take it personally, because that scammer has no idea who you are or, most of the time where you are," said Roche. "It's just like going fishing. They cast their nets into the ocean, and they've got a lot of bait."

Roche, who hails from a family heavily involved in law enforcement, said he did not go looking to be "the scam guy or the fraud guy, but obviously the need is there."

"I'm happy to do it," said Roche. "I'm happy to take the message to the people, and I take it personally. I get very angry when I hear about some of these scams. I think information is my weapon; it's what I dispense to people."