Greg's Corner

Scammers promise to restore power in wake of hurricane

By Greg Collier

Hurricane Ian was one of the most devastating storms to ever make landfall in the US. In Florida alone, roughly 2 million residents are still without power. They may not see their power restored until later this week or possibly next week. And that’s with over 20,000 electrical workers working around the clock. Leave it to scammers though to make the worst out of an already bad situation.

With so many Florida residents being without power, the scammers saw this as an opportunity. The scammers are posing as one of Florida’s major power providers and promising victims they can get their power restored faster if they make a payment. Victims are being sent barcodes or QR codes that appear to mimic the power company’s online payment system. Except, the payments are going to scammers rather than the power company.

Power companies do not prioritize certain customers after an extreme outage like this. Typically, power is first restored to critical services like hospitals and emergency services. Then power is restored to customers in the quickest way possible. There is no way they can prioritize one customer over another on a house by house basis.

While it may sound tempting in the moments after a natural disaster, if someone claims they can turn your power on sooner for money, they are trying to scam you.

This is just one of many scams that can plague the victims of natural disasters. Typically, scammers may try to file a FEMA claim in your name before you can. If a FEMA representative shows up at your home before you’ve contacted them, a scammer may have filed a claim in your name. Then there are the phony contractors that chase storms like this looking for victims. The Cape Coral police have several tips on how to avoid these con artists.