Starkville Utilities Advises Locals To Watch Out For Utility Scammers

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) — Many college students are starting to move back to Starkville before the fall semester.

And Starkville Utilities is advising the students and others to keep an eye out — some people are disguising themselves as utility workers for the company.

The city of Starkville warning residents about an ongoing scam. In a recent twitter post, Starkville utilities say someone’s posing as Starkville Utilities worker to get inside an apartment or house.

General manager at Starkville Utilities Terry Kemp said the metering equipment is on the outside of those buildings.

“So if a person makes a request for a new service or transfer service or whatever, we access it from outside and we do not go in,” said Kemp.

That’s one of the biggest red flags to catch if you think you’re being scammed. Kemp also said with today’s technology, they can do some of the work right from their office.

“On our electric side, we have capabilities where almost all of our electric meters are remotely controlled, so in most cases, it doesn’t even require for us to go on-site,” said Kemp.

A few helpful tips… if you think you’re the target of a possible scam, ask for more identification from the person.

Ask questions that might pertain to the service the scammer says you need, or Kemp said you can always give them a call.

“It may be a bill pay, so although this is something that Starkville Utilities does not go into connecting services, we do not call or demand payments or something online, too,” said Kemp. “That’s handled in a different approach. So anytime anyone has a bit of concern or question about something they received from us please give us a call. Because what I think we want to do is explain and to make sure that they have all of the information that they have and they need to they can take the correct action.”

Starkville Utilities works with the local police department and they encourage people to file a report or notify the police of this activity.