Adams County Sheriff Warns Against Newest Scam

On October 24, the Office of the Adams County Sheriff was made aware of a new scam involving utility companies. In this new operation, the scammers will pose as representatives of a legitimate utility company and will call a customer telling them that they have an outstanding bill that must be paid immediately or their services will be shut off. The customer is then told he or she may pay the bill immediately with a prepaid debit card.

The customer is then instructed to to send the cards to an out of town address or to give the card numbers over the phone to a representative. some of these "companies" have even given customers a 1-877 phone number which contains a recording of the real utility company's phone prompts. After pressing a prompted number, a scammer will answer the phone and speak to a victim. This scammer will be very pushy; telling the caller that they must pay immediately and can only select the prepaid option.

If you receive a call and are not able to verify whether or not it is from an actual utility company or you do not believe you have any outstanding bills and they are asking for money, contact your local law enforcement agency before making any payments. The Adams County Sheriff's Office hopes notifying the public of scams such as this one will lessen the likelihood of future scams.