How to keep bears from my tree cam?

Question? Can bears smell my scent after handling and setting up tree cams? I recently set up half a dozen cameras last week and a few days ago I had a bear rip 3 out of the 6 cameras off the tree. I use a lock and cable and the sob broke that and drug my cameras around. I managed to find them (broken but still work) so what's the deal? I've been setting cams in this same spot for 3 years and have seen bears on my camera but they never bothered with them. I read online to try spraying the cams with scent lock spray? I was thinking I might hang a scent waffer on it but I'd like to see if any of you have had similar problems and how to keep the bears from massacring my cameras. Thanks

Yes they can smell your scent.
I clean my cameras and security boxes with Clorox or rubbing alcohol prior to taking into the field.
I use security boxes, 3 inch lag bolts into my trail cam tree. The long lag bolts=significant effort to tear off tree. I pull sd card and check cameras with latex gloves on before placing bait.

I know this is very effective remedy...has worked for me. I get lazy and sometimes skip the gloves, but still check camera before touching/filling bait. Last 5 years with 25+ bears on bait each year...0 trail cam casualties. I take that back...on a second new bait site I tested this year I had one casualty. Camera was at bear eye height and tree was rotten. Picked new live tree and reiterate the long lag bolts did the trick. Still observed plenty of bear slobber on it thou, but they did not remove it again.

Also, to help avoid camera/bear interactions... I've found that if the camera is mounted higher up (say your eye level or higher) and not at a bears eye level while on all 4 legs you greatly increase your odds.

This is what I've learned over the past 8-10 years. Good luck!

+1 on all the above. We don't use boxes, but haven't lost a camera since moving them up to 7-8 feet. They might still play a little, but don't do enough to damage anything.