On Friday, March 23, 2012 at about 8:15 a.m., Brighton Police received a report of a possible telephone scam involving a man claiming to represent United Power service.A United Power customer reported that she received a phone call from a Spanish speaking male stating her account was overdue and her electricity would be disconnected if payment was not received by later in the day. The male instructed the customer not to contact the local office of United Power and gave her instructions on how to make payment directly to him. The customer became suspicious because her account was not overdue and the phone number the male was calling from was outside Colorado.
United Power is a local co-operative, and does not conduct billing from outside of Colorado. If customers receive a similar phone call and are unsure about the legitimacy of the caller, they should contact United Power directly at 303-637-1300, and report the incident to Brighton police.
The Brighton Police have determined that other residents have been contacted and may be victims. If you have any information concerning this incident please contact Detective Michael Payne at 303-655-2367.
Glad you brought this up because I did get a call like that, too. Told me my bill's overdue and they were set to cut my service off in about an hour. I knew it was a scam right away but what alarmed was that the man has all my information correctly. He has my name, address and phone number. He even has my email. He even gave them to me. I told him I knew he was a scammer and I'm reporting him to the police. The man hung up. I took his phone number down and reported him to Callercenter.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm wondering, do legit companies sell consumer information to other telemarketing businesses?