Scammers are trying to convince people they are about to shut off your utilities. We’ve warned you about this scam before, but it’s making the rounds again in our area. Several viewers reached out to our Call for Action team because they got the call, including one woman who nearly paid the scammer hundreds of dollars.

“We got a phone call from the Colorado Springs Utilities saying that they were dispatching an officer to turn off our power in about 45 minutes,” said Rebecca Stevens of Elev8 Glass Gallery. “He said that we were late on our bill, they had sent us out some notifications and that we hadn’t been paying.”

“First, I called my bookkeeper to try to figure out everything and she’s not in today, so we were just like, ‘OK, we’ve got to do whatever we’ve got to do to make sure the power doesn’t get turned off,’ ” Rebecca added.

The caller told Rebecca she owed about $1,000 and that she could only make a payment using a money card. “He said, ‘You have to go get the loadable money card. You can’t just pay it over the phone. You have to do an express payment,’ ” Rebecca said. “He said once I got the card he would send a technician out to scan the card to make sure that the payment went through and then they would keep the power on.”

Rebecca rushed to a nearby convenience store. They didn’t have the money card she was looking for and a clerk warned her that it might be a scam. Then she went to another store. “They had a hard time loading them and that’s when I was like, you know what, there’s no way. So I called the real utilities company and it turns out there was a few calls about it this morning,” Rebecca said.

After Rebecca realized it was a scam, she reached out to our 11 Call for Action team to let us know about it. She thought it was real because the caller ID showed the number for Colorado Springs Utilities. Like I explained, scammers can spoof their phone number to make it look like they are calling from any number, so it’s important to be cautious.

Plus, Colorado Springs Utilities told us they would never ask for payment like that. “We would never contact a customer under any circumstance and demand a payment in the form of a card. Really, if a person’s in a disconnection process, they would have gotten letters and other communications from us,” said Steve Berry, a spokesperson for Colorado Springs Utilities.

You can reach out to Utilities to make sure it’s a legitimate call.

Ask the caller for their employee ID number, then call the Colorado Springs Utilities service center at 719-448-4800 to verify. Remember, the scammers are trying to scare you into paying them. Don’t share personal information or your credit card number.

If you’re wondering if you’re dealing with a scam, call our 11 Call for Action volunteers at 719-457-8211.