message stating they were from the power company and asked the consumer to return the call. The return telephone number was nothing like Ozark’s Electric number, but the menu options on the scammer’s IVR message sounded very much like the co-op—with one exception. “Any button pushed would connect you with someone who was trying to steal your money,” Redfearn says. He added that Ozark’s Electric tracks all reported scam attempts and
is quick to warn members of fraud attempts via alerts on social media, website and SmartHub customer service portal. Of eight reported in- cidents in 2015, seven used threats of disconnect to prompt the con- sumer to purchase a Green Dot card or Money Gram card for a certain amount. “The figure is never accurate to the member’s actual bill, but it
usually sounds like a reasonable amount that someone might owe,” Redfearn says.
Once the member purchases the money card, they are instructed to call the scammer back and provide the card number. With card number in hand, the crook quickly converts the card to cash. Merrell Bassett, owner of the All-Inn Tavern in Muskogee, Okla., and a longtime member of East Central Oklahoma Electric Cooperative, discov- ered how fruitless it is to trace such transactions. Basset lost over $400 to thieves in a Green Dot scam played on him last year. “They called at 3 p.m. Friday and said they would cut off the power by 5 p.m. if I didn’t go to a Money Gram place across town and pay $415,” he recalls. “They caught me at the perfect time. I knew my business couldn’t afford to go without power. On top of that, I was leaving the next day to go on a cruise for a week!”
After returning from vacation, Basset called his co-op to check on the payment and realized he’d been scammed. He contacted Money Gram, who traced the transaction to a Florida-based bank where thieves exchanged the card for cash 25 minutes after their last phone conversation with him. Once a card is cashed in, Basset learned, there is little hope of getting the money back again or tracing thieves’ whereabouts. Still sick over his loss, Basset admits the experience left him wiser. “My advice to others is to get a second opinion. If I would’ve called East
Central Electric for verification, this would never have happened,” he says. Fraud experts offer another word to the wise: Don’t interact with the
caller. “The more time you spend with them on the phone, the more likely they
Suspect a scam? Report it!
If you’ve received a phone call, email or other form of contact you suspect could be a scam, report the incident as soon as possible to the Oklahoma Attorney General Consumer Protection Division.
3 File complaints online at
https://www.ok.gov/ oag/ 3 Email:
public.protection@
oag.ok.gov 3 Telephone: 405-521-2029
60 percent of scammers pretended to represent financial institutions or government agencies.
82.6 million of U.S. telephone calls each month are scams.
Source: Pin Drop Security
are to extract information or get you to do something you don’t want to do,” Bays says. Threats to the scammers aren’t likely to work, either. The majority of scam calls originate overseas in countries that are unlikely to aid attempts at prosecution. Because most calls are made using the Internet, they are nearly impossible to trace. “The scammers know there’s not much we can do so they’re not afraid of getting caught,” Bays says Remember, too, they aren’t called con artists for nothing. Professional scammers seem to know intuitively how to be professional and when to apply more aggressive techniques. When crooks contacted Pocola, Okla., daycare owner Rose Ashing in
October 2015, they referred to her co-op, Arkansas Valley Electric Cooperative (AVEC), by name and provided the exact address of the local Tote-A-Poke convenience store where she could purchase a Green Dot card. “There are only five Tote-A-Poke stores in Leflore County, so they obvi- ously did some research,” says Mark Fuller, AVEC district manager. “That was disturbing to us.” With 40 hungry kids waiting for lunch, Ashing admits the threat of losing power alarmed her. Thankfully, her good sense overrode her panic. “I’ve never been approached like that by Arkansas Valley on anything, so I knew something wasn’t right,” she says. Good member relations helped many Oklahoma co-ops thwart similar
scam attempts in their service areas. Members are quick to report strange calls to their co-op so they, in turn, can warn others. Northfork Electric Cooperative, headquartered in Sayre, Okla., reports several scam attempts on members over the past three years but no victims. “Our members know us and they’re familiar with the way we do things,”
says Matt Stint, communications specialist. “Threatening people over the phone is simply not in line with what we do.” While disconnect procedures differ among electric cooperatives, they typ- ically offer some type of fair warning—usually more than once—before dis- connecting electric service for nonpayment. Threats, fear, panic or any attempt to instill a sense of dire emergency to coerce a person to act quickly are red flags, Bays says. The best defense: Get off the phone. “Until we change how we interact with our telephones, these scams will continue,” Bays says. “Only when they stop making money will they stop calling.”
FEBRUARY 2016 7
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