A new trend has appeared in
N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper has been working on informing residents on scammers who try to garner information and steal residents’ money through the phone.
“This is a new twist to an old scam,” Cooper said. “Telemarketers are not only trying to steal personal information, but also money. They will pretend to be your bank, telephone company or utility service and will threaten to close your account or turn off the power unless you give them information and pay them. Duke Energy reported to us that some victims have lost almost $900 due to recent runs.”
Cooper said scammers will use scare tactics to trick customers into relinquishing the information.
“What they’ll do is say there’s a problem with the account and say you have to pay immediately,” Cooper said. “Con artists know customers are likely to respond if there’s a consequence. People should not respond to people who call them on the phone with these types of threats. If you’re concerned about your power or bank, you call your department.”
Scammers have had
“We send a final notice if your bill is late; we’ll send an orange final notice slip with your next bill,” Williams said. “After that, one of two things would happen: you make the payment or we cut utilities off. We might call to ask them to verify their address, but we wouldn’t ask for an account number or a payment. That’s the responsibility of the customer.”
In the Kinston Public Services' administrative policy, Article 8, Section 1 states, “Utility bills shall be mailed to each customer once each month and are due and payable when received.”
The policy continues, “Twenty (20) days after the billing date, the bills are considered delinquent and a service fee is assessed. Unless payment is then made, service will be subject to disconnection ten (10) days after the delinquent date.”
Operations manager Chris Hill said he had recently talked to a customer who dealt with someone trying to scam her.
“One person came in (Thursday) and complained about someone calling them,” Hill said. “The customer who came in was an excellent pay customer and wasn’t late on her bills at all. Scammers are trying to contact anyone they can find.”
Hill said there are steps customers can make in order to protect themselves from losing money to scammers.
“If you receive any type of suspicious calls or letters, try to find the source behind it,” Hill said. “If you send it to the public safety department, they’ll sort through it to see if it’s legitimate. Anytime a customer has problems with their account, they can contact us to see what their payments are and if they’re behind.
“We have a 24-hour service number. Customers can call us at any time with any problems they may have.”
Junious Smith III can be reached at 252-559-1077 and Junious.Smith@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JuniousSmithIII.
Breakout box:
Received a questionable call?
If you feel skeptical with anyone calling about utility bills through Kinston Public Services and want to confirm the call’s authenticity, call the Kinston Public Services 24-hour service line at 252-939-3282.