Greg's Corner

Be careful of heating and power scams this winter

With the amount of winter storms that have hit the country this winter, reports are coming in stating that there have been an uptick in scams involving heating and electricity. According to Marketwatch, the scam works in one of two ways.

The first is that the scammers cold call their victims offering a discount on their heating or electricity bill by way of some sort of bogus federal program. Once they receive your personal information the scam artists will steal your identity for various other illegal purposes. The second way is that the scammers will call you stating that you have an outstanding and overdue balance with one of your utility companies. They’ll then ask you to make payment either through wiring the money or a prepaid debit card, both of which are untraceable one the money has been taken.

These are old-school style scams that resemble the modern phishing scams, but instead of using emails or social media it uses the age-old phone call. Much like the phishing scams don’t ever trust any kind of unsolicited phone call. Scammers like this ignore the Do Not Call registry since they’re not legitimate companies. If someone claims to be from your utility company hang up and call the number that appears on your bill, and ask them if there is an issue with your account.