There have been reports of phone calls with the Caller ID showing as a person’s utility company. The scammer claims that the customer owes over a thousand dollars and proceeds to demand that if the customer does not pay, their service would be cut off. Because the phone number on their caller ID is the actual phone number for their utility company, the customer advises they cannot pay it all at once. After the scammer agrees to accept half of the money to keep the service on, the person ends up frantically sending the money through Zelle or providing their credit card information over the phone.*
So far in 2022, 97% of shut off scams requested money through Zelle and 3% through Green Dot prepaid cards.*
It is important to be aware that even if you get caught in a Zelle payment scam, you still may not be able to get your money back. Zelle doesn’t offer a protection program for authorized payments, so it is important that you should only be using the app to pay friends, relatives, coworkers, or people that you trust.
If you sent money to a scammer, report the scam to the mobile payment app and ask them to reverse the transaction right away. Then, report it to the Federal Trade Commission. When you report a scam, the FTC can use the information to build cases against scammers.
*Now Scammers are Impersonating Utility Companies with Called ID, Susan Tompor, USA Today.