SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — Sioux Falls Police reports scammers asked for Bitcoin, a digital currency, in recent ripoffs of a couple of Sioux Falls residents.
Officer Sam Clemens says the scammers called their marks and said they were from Xcel Energy. The crooks said that unless the victims paid them in Bitcoin and used a Bitcoin kiosk, they would have their power disconnected within a half hour.
The victims paid an undisclosed amount of money to the scammers. Clemens says the next day, the victims called the utility and discovered they had been ripped off.
In another scam, Clemens says the culprits used a more old-fashioned form of scammery. They sent an official-looking letter from the “Ohio Department of Family Services” and included some sort of fake tax bill. The letter said the recipient should go to a .gov website. That website redirected to another website.
In this instance, the intended victim did not go through with any payment and contacted the authorities.
Clemens says if you get a call from someone purporting to be from a governmental agency or utility, tell them you’ll call them back and then do your own independent research. Find a legitimate number and call to see if you owe money. Also, he says governments and utilities will never want you to pay in gift cards or similar methods.
Clemens also says most of these scammers are from not just out of state but out of the country. If they are out of the country, he says, there’s virtually nothing the authorities can do, which is also frustrating for them. If it is a domestic scammer, he says the Sioux Falls Police works with the Secret Service and the FBI to try to catch the scofflaws.
