City of Hastings issued the following announcement on Mar. 11.
Utility scam attempts are on the rise and the Hastings Utilities Department wants customers to be aware of the latest tricks scammers are using to get money or personal information.
The department is continuing to receive reports about calls to customers telling them that they have overpaid for their utilities and are entitled to a refund. The caller instructs customers to press “1” to be connected to receive their rebate or refund.
This is a scam, and the caller is attempting to trick customers into giving up important banking or personal information. The scam calls are disguising their real phone numbers to make the calls appear local.
If you are unsure whether a call is legitimate, hang up the phone and dial the Utilities Department directly at 402-463-1371.
The Hastings Utilities Department will never make unsolicited phone calls to customers for the purpose of issuing refunds. If a customer accidentally overpays or pays twice for the same bill, that surplus amount will remain on the customer’s account and will be used for the next bill. If a customer doesn’t want the surplus to roll over for the next bill, the customer can call our business office to begin processing a refund, but only at the customer’s request.
Original source can be found here.
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