After the first week of 2023, two scam alerts have been sounded for Culpeper and the rest of Virginia regarding utilities and cryptocurrency.
On Jan. 3, an announcement was made by the town of Culpeper warning residents of a scam involving phone calls from unknown persons posing as utility companies. These callers demanded payments for overdue payments due to a change in utility service provider.
The callers would then threaten those they called with termination of their utilities if payment was not made. Customers would then be asked to make payments in cash, with prepaid gift cards or through local money transfer merchants.
These methods, especially gift cards, are chosen methods of scammers in order to anonymize such unauthorized payments.
Culpeper’s announcement made clear that services are not transferred to other utility providers without prior notice to customers that would be affected by the change. The announcement also mentioned that the town does not contact customers via phone or in person asking for personal information.
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