Posted on 08/16/2014 9:32:48 AM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Residents are urged to be cautious after a local business reported being contacted by a suspected con artist seeking money for an alleged overdue electric bill.
The business owner reported being called from a phone line with an 850 area code, originating out of the Florida Panhandle, when a man on the other line said they had only 30 minutes to pay or their electricity would be shut off, according to the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.
(Excerpt) Read more at svherald.com ...
I live in the Florida Panhandle and the local sheriffs have been warning about the same scam. I personally have not received any calls from them.
It’s good to be aware of such scams.
It’s also good to know that there is a process to go through, to cut off someone’s power. Generally, bills have to be past due for a period of months, and, you will be contacted both by mail and by phone to discuss that, without threats to cut off your power.
If you know you are paying your bills, it should be a giant red flag to get a call out of the blue, urging you to pay up or power is getting cut off.
I don’t know the number calling, I NEVER answer the phone. I also don’t have my voice mail active.
My phone is for me to get a hold of you, not for you to get a hold of me.
I wonder which ‘Circle of Hell’ Dante would assign these scam pigs to? You know that the ones they hope to hit are the aged and infirm as those are the ones who get scared and comply.
I’m sure that all already know it, BUT just to reaffirm - Utility companies, i.e.. electric, water, sewage and the like, never do cut offs outside business hours, never do it without multiple notices and even door-to-door visits. I may not like the bills or attitude, but as monopolies, they do have to operate very carefully, especially for life-sustaining utilities.
Yesterday, I received a letter from a collection group, which is totally a scam.
I used to use Net Zero for my internet connections.
After some time, their service kept dropping me offline in the middle of typing, etc. I had always paid for those services by an automatic charge on my credit card. They were not paid late.
In July, 2013, I stopped the service with Net Zero, which included many e-mails back & forth. They didn’t want to stop billing me. I got another provider, and I actually overlapped for 2 months & paid both bills, until I was satisfied with the new service. The last charge on my credit card bill is July 2013. At that point, I owed Net Zero not a single dime more. I had actually paid them for more than a month for a service I did not use.
The letter yesterday says I am “IN COLLECTION’ for $19.90, which is 2 months of service. The “collection” service is a division of Net Zero. I called the phone number on the letter. Got only a recording that told me where to mail my payment & the same address if I wished to challenge this letter or make an inquiry.
The craziest part is that the letter clearly states in bold print that I MUST MAY THIS OVERDUE AMOUNT BY AUGUST 29, 2012!!!
Even if I owed this money, I could NOT pay it by a date which is almost 2 years ago!!!
I called my credit card to alert them. I am filing a fraud report with the Nevada Attorney General’s office of Consumer Protection.
I haven’t used any services of Net Zero for over a year.
The letter does NOT state what dates I ‘owe’ for.
The date of demanded payment deadline is almost 2 YEARS AGO.
I am writing this to warn all those here on FR that Net Zero is scamming. IF you have ever used that service, be alert. They might be trying to charge your credit card again.
As a life-long bookkeeper, I always attach my credit card slips to each statement. They haven’t gotten a charge thru on my credit card since July 2013.
Bad enough that their service deteriorated to where I replaced them.
Now, they are trying to bully me with threats of COLLECTION being on my credit score.
Also beware of scammers claiming to be the IRS saying you owe back taxes and are about to have arrest warrant issued. we got one of these calls the other day.
Yeah, we got one of those, an apparently Indian accent, saying “thees ees treshedy depahtment...” and my caller ID shows some 11-digit number that’s obviously not from the US.
no offense to you yarddog but I never, NEVER do business with anyone from Florida anymore.
They have always scammed me, FL full of con men or very old people.
Absolutely -- couldn't agree more! It's the equivalent of someone just barging in your house uninvited. My door has a lock for a reason ... and my phone has caller ID for the same reason.
Same here - if they leave a message, I can decide whether to get back. If no message, no contact.
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