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In these scams, the businesses received calls from someone claiming to be the electric company, advising them that their payment was overdue and power shutoff was imminent unless the problem was rectified.
In order to avoid the shutoff during service hours, the owner/manager was asked to make a payment within 30 minutes. Because that could not be done in time, they were asked to purchase a prepaid money card and then provide the scratch-off numbers to the caller or wire money via MoneyGram in order to pay the outstanding bill.
In other utility scams, businesses have received an email regarding an outstanding balance and provided a phone number to call.
Police advise those who receive a call like this to hang up and call their utility company directly to inquire about their balance. Those who receive such an email are advised to check their monthly statement and contact the phone number directly on the bill.
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