NEWBERRY, S.C. — The latest wave of scams aimed at separating people from their money has landed in South Carolina with the culprits threatening to leave unsuspecting victims in the dark.
The Newberry County Sheriff's Office shared on Friday that scammers are now posing as electric company representatives - in this case claiming to work for Newberry Electric Cooperative.
According to the sheriff's office, the fake representatives are claiming they will cut off a person's power unless that person pays them using a gift card. The schemer will tell the power customer to buy the card and then read the number on the card so that they can gain access to the funds on it.
The problem with this - or one of many - is that neither Newberry Electric nor any other power providers in South Carolina operate this way which the sheriff's office reiterated in his Friday post.
"It is a scam," the sheriff's office added.
Experts often warn of scams where a caller claims to be someone they're not in order to scare a victim into providing funds. In those cases, the urgency of the call is one clue that a caller might be illegitimate. Another major clue is when the caller asks that funds be provided through some sort of gift card or other cash cards.
Any time a customer is unsure of a request by phone, the best way to know for sure is to call a number they already have on file - not one provided by the potential scammer - and check with the utility directly.
The same process of calling the agency in question also works for cases where scammers pretend to be someone in law enforcement.
