Fraud perpetrated in the name of electric power companies

The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office has received information that people are getting phone calls from unknown individuals representing themselves as utility companies such as Duke Energy or Blue Ridge Electric. The caller informs the homeowner that their monthly bill is overdue and that they face having their service turned off immediately if they do not provide funds over the phone through the use of “Green Dot Cards” or other types of prepaid cards. These types of calls are not legitimate and should be treated as scam calls attempting to obtain money that is not connected to your utility service. If you receive a suspicious call, ask for the representative’s name and discontinue the call. Locate the phone number to the utility service yourself and call the utility company to inform them of the suspicious person so they can verify that the call is valid or false. Do not rely on a phone number displayed on Caller ID or one that is given to you by the suspicious caller. Information displayed on Caller ID can easily be manipulated. The sheriff’s office reminds everyone to refrain from providing debit card, credit card or personal information over the phone unless you know without question that you are speaking with a creditable person.