Scams involving utility bills for electric, water or gas services have long been popular with scammers.  In the past people would be called on the phone, texted or emailed by scammers posing as the victim’s utility company demanding payment for an unpaid bill.  Now in a new variation on this scam, the scammers first call and threaten the targeted victim with  cutting off of their services unless an immediate payment is made by using a QR code that the scammer then provides in a text message along with directions to go to the closest Walgreens, CVS or Walmart and use their payment services to have the money sent to the scammer posing as the utility company

TIPS

You can never be sure when you get a text message or a telephone call if it is really from a legitimate source.  A scammer can use a technique called “spoofing” to make it appear that the call or text message is from a legitimate caller.  Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.    In the case of a utility bill, merely call the number on the back of your bill and you will be able to confirm whether or not the communication was legitimate.

Another red flag that this is a scam is that scammers always try to have you pay them in ways that are difficult or impossible to reverse, such as wiring money, gift cards, cryptocurrencies or QR codes.  Real utilities never ask for a specific way to make payment and don’t accept payments by gift cards.

Finally, there are companies like Kaspersky that have free QR code scanner apps that will not only scan the QR code, but also let you know if it is legitimate and prevent the downloading of malware from bogus QR codes.  Here is a link to Kaspersky’s QR code scanner.  https://www.kaspersky.com/qr-scanner

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