Prepaid credit card scam targets electricity customers in Stanislaus County
Article from Modesto Bee:
Scam artists are a clever and persistent lot who seem to constantly find new ways to rip off people.
The latest con making the rounds in Stanislaus County involves prepaid credit cards and high-pressure demands for payment of supposedly past-due electric bills.
The Modesto Irrigation District, Turlock Irrigation District and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. are warning customers about a rash of phone calls from people impersonating their employees and threatening to shut off power.
The scammers try to convince customers to immediately pay them money to keep the electricity flowing.
Here’s the new twist: To quickly collect their ill-gotten gains, the fraudsters insist customers buy prepaid money cards and call them with the card numbers. Once they get those numbers, they’re gone, and so is the money.
Such money transfers, unfortunately, are untraceable. Those scam calls can come from anywhere in the world because cash from prepaid cards can be accessed around the globe.
“The caller we heard about this afternoon was very aggressive and rude and put fear into our customer about what would happen if the bill wasn’t paid,” MID’s spokeswom…………………continues on Modesto Bee
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