Utility scam warning for businesses

Posted at 11:38 am September 16, 2013
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

WYSH Radio in Clinton had a scam warning on Monday for businesses who are also customers of Clinton Utilities Board.

Earlier this month, a CUB official notified the Clinton Police Department that three businesses had contacted the utility reporting that they had received phone calls from two different numbers in which the caller told them that they were with the “CUB Disconnect Office” and that they were behind on their bills. In each case, the caller told the business that their service would be disconnected if payment was not made immediately and then provided instructions on how to wire the money through a money service from Walmart or Kmart.

In one case, according to the incident report, the caller said that they were “one street over” and would be there in a few minutes.

None of the three businesses who contacted CUB were behind on their payments, and none gave the caller any money. Officials want to emphasize that phone calls like this are simply not the way CUB conducts its business. Officials at CUB said one reason they notified law enforcement was out of concern that the scam might spread to residential customers, including the elderly.

Information in this story brought to you through an agreement between Oak Ridge Today and WYSH. See more local news headlines on the WYSH website at http://www.wyshradio.com/local_news.html.

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