APS phone scam being reported in Yuma area again
Hoping to prevent people from falling for it, the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office is warning the public that an Arizona Public Service phone scam is once again making its way around the area.
According to spokesperson Alfonso Zavala, the sheriff’s office has received a lot of complaints over the past few days from county residents reporting that they have recently gotten calls from someone pretending to be an APS employee.
The caller, Zavala said, claims the victim must pay their electric bill or their power will be turned off. These callers then instruct the victim to purchase prepaid cards in a specific amount and to call a special number to make the payment.
“APS never requires payment using a prepaid card,” Zavala said.
Zavala said sometimes people get so intimidated by the calls demanding payment, and are in a such a state of panic or confusion, that they sometimes give the scammer their personal financial information, which can also lead to their identity being stolen.
If there is ever a question about the validity of an email, website or person claiming to be an APS representative, Zavala said to call the APS Customer Care Center immediately at (602) 371-7171 to verify this information.
It is also important to remember, he said, that APS doesn’t call customers demanding immediate payment. Also, no APS representative will ever show up on a doorstep demanding immediate payment either.
Zavala urges the community to remain vigilant about these and similar phone scams, in which the caller claims to be from a legitimate business or agency. Those who receive such a call should hang up and contact the business or agency directly.
Something else that can help is learning to recognize the signs of a phishing email: mismatched fonts, missing hyperlinks, improper grammar and misspellings
According to APS, never share credit card information with an unverified source.
Customers who pay by credit card at aps.com will be directed to the KUBRA EZ-Pay website, which asks them to enter a “captcha” validation code.
A “captcha” typically uses a set of letters and numbers that the user is required to manually retype and submit. Any other credit card payment site is fraudulent and should not be used.