Dawson Power has been alerted that cooperative or public power district consumers in various states are receiving phone calls from fraudsters posing to be from the power district or co-op and asking the consumer to provide credit card or other financial account information and personally identifiable information over the phone. This scam is hitting utilities across the nation. There are at least two flavors of this scam -- one is to say the consumer owes on his/her account and will have service shut-off unless payment information is provided immediately. The other appears aimed more specifically at seniors. The caller claims the consumer can receive Federal stimulus dollars to pay their utility bills or some sort of a bill credit but the consumer must first provide his/her personal information (e.g. Social Security Number and utility account number).
Dawson Power consumers should not give out credit card or social security information over the phone if they are called. Please call into our office (308) 324-2386 or 1-800-752-8305 to double check the legitimacy of the call. You can pay your account online at any time or you can call after hours and be assisted by our after-hours call provider. If you are delinquent on your account, you may receive a recorded message advising you of this status if we have current contact information on your account.
There are state level resources (typically through the state attorney general’s office) as well as the Federal Trade Commission's identity theft site: www.ftc.gov/idtheft. Additional information is available from the FTC's main site: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/consumer/data/idt.shtm.
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