Sheriff's office warns of new scam
MINERAL COUNTY – The Mineral County Sheriff’s Office has issued a warning to county residents to be wary of phone scammers who pose as utility company bill collectors this winter.
According to Sheriff Ernie Ornelas, the scam has been used on both businesses and residential homes. The scammers use special software to make a phone’s caller ID show the number as from a utility company. Once someone is on the phone, a warning is given to pay a late bill immediately or the utilities will be shut off.
Ornelas said a utility company would never do this. Companies send two or three written notices before cutting off the customer. He said the billing offices do not make a call where a demand is made to pay right away or service will be shut down.
“Utility companies won’t cut you off,” said Ornelas. “They don’t say ‘pay us now,’ over the phone with a credit card. It’s not going to happen.”
The key is to remain calm and not give card information over the phone. Ornelas recommended if there are doubts whether a call is genuine, residents should thank the caller for the notice and immediately call the utility company support number to check the status of a bill.
“[If the company is] making the call,” said Ornelas. “They’ll be able to verify what’s going on.”
Ornelas said senior citizens could be especially vulnerable to the scam because of aging memory. Some people who have memory problems may not remember when a bill was paid and take the caller’s word. However, Ornelas also said anyone could fall victim to the scam. It can be easy for panic to set in and a person to give credit card information over the phone without recognizing the suspicious circumstances.
“The way they’re able to manipulate it to look like it’s coming from the utility company on the caller ID can fool a lot of people,” Ornelas said.
While he has not heard of any cases reported in Mineral County, Ornelas believed it could happen at any time. He would like the community to be aware of the danger and be on guard of suspicious calls from utility providers. He said power companies seem to have been the most popular utility used in the scam.
According to Ornelas, the scam started somewhere in the southeast, around Kentucky. It was a success and began to sweep across the nation. Investigations are underway to find the scammers, but it was unknown who is responsible. While it likely started with one person or group, the sheriff’s office believes it may have expanded.
“The impression I got from the notification was that it was more than one group,” Ornelas said.
The sheriff’s office would like people to be aware of the scam and be careful of suspicious calls. While there have been no reported incidents in the county, a preemptive awareness is important for people not to victim to the scam. According to Northwestern Energy representatives the scam has mostly targeted businesses. The representative, who requested not to be named, said the caller does not always ask for credit card information and may request an alternate means of payment.
“In recent incidents, callers have asked for prepaid debit cards issued by retailers, payment via PayPal or other form of payment that prevents recovery of money by scam victims,” Northwestern Energy said in a press release.
Because the cards cannot be traced or have transactions cancelled, once the transfer is made the money is gone. It is impossible to recover funds transferred in this manner.
According to the representative, Northwestern Energy has stopped keeping track of which Montana counties have had reports. The scam was described as occurring all over the state and a frustration for Northwestern Energy.
“It’s all over the place,” the representative said. “We can’t really do much about it.”
The last complaint Northwestern Energy received was on October 28. The company’s press release offered some suggestions for how to avoid the scam:
· Never provide your Social Security Number, credit card number or banking information to anyone requesting it over the phone or at your home unless you initiated the contact and feel confident with whom you are speaking.
· If you receive a call claiming to be your utility company and feel pressured for immediate payment or personal information, hang up the phone and call the customer service number on your utility bill.
· Never allow anyone into your home to check electrical wiring, natural gas pipes or appliances unless you have scheduled an appointment or have reported a utility problem. Also, ask utility employees for proper identification.