City of Batavia issued the following announcement on Feb. 25.
The Batavia Police Department was alerted that residents in town have recently received scam phone calls from individuals purporting to be with their utility service provider, generally ComEd. These imposters may contact you and falsely claim that your electric service will be disconnected unless payment is made. They often ask for payment in gift cards or other unconventional means (Zelle, Venmo, Paypal, etc.) and will request that victims provide the gift card PIN to them over the phone. The caller may engage in a tactic called “spoofing” phone numbers, in an effort to make the phone numbers look like they were coming from a legitimate source, such as ComEd or another service provider. Caller ID spoofing is the process of changing the Caller ID to any number other than the actual calling number. The number that displays on your Caller ID may look as though it's coming from a government agency, business, or even someone in your contacts list in an attempt to trick you into answering the call. Finally, most residents in Batavia receive electric utilities directly from the City of Batavia. The following link has information about the various ways payment for utilities can be made with the City:
http://cityofbatavia.net/414/Billing-Payment
If you have any concerns about the legitimacy of a phone call, disconnect and call the company back at a known or legitimate phone number for the business.
Original source can be found here.
Source: City of Batavia
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