JAMESTOWN – Local residents are being advised to be wary of a couple of phone scams:
SCAM INVOLVING JAMESTOWN BPU
The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities advises customers to be on the alert for a recent scam that has surfaced among its hotel customers.
Two local hotels received a call Tuesday from someone who said he was from the BPU. He told them there was a problem with their routing number on their payment and that if they did not give the correct information, he would send someone to turn off their water. A second hotel was told by the person that they would need to pay $600 within two hours or water would be disconnected.
The BPU says that customers should be aware that it would not call and ask for bank or credit account information from a customer over the phone.
SCAM INVOLVING IRS
The Jamestown Police are reporting that a call was made to a local resident from a person who was reporting to be “Officer Charlie of the IRS” and advised the resident that they owed back taxes and needed to pay immediately, or face arrest. The call was shown coming from a 703 area code, but programs can be obtained to allow the caller to have any number displayed on a recipients caller ID.
The IRS will never demand payment from you via the telephone. Residents are advised to never send any money or other means of payment to anyone they are not sure of.
Police say calls of this nature are usually found to be coming from an overseas area outside of the United States.
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