LIBERTY, Mo. – A scam involving utility bills is circulating the metro and has reached Liberty. Warnings are going out to consumers in several cities from police departments on the Missouri side.
“Blue Springs and Independence first reported the bogus calls,” said Sgt. Mike Childs with Lee’s Summit police. “We’ve had six complaints this week.”
Now the caller or callers appear to be phoning Liberty utility customers and may be behind a door-to-door suspected scam. The phone calls involve a scammer claiming there's a problem with the payment of a citizen’s water bill.
“They say it can’t be processed and then start asking for personal bank information,” explained Sgt. Childs. “We have an automated system here, so no one from the utility company would be asking for any checking or debit card information over the phone.”
The Liberty Police and Utility Departments report they, too, have received several calls from citizens complaining of a scam related to alleged water billing problems. At least one Liberty resident provided debit card information to a scammer, resulting in several hundred dollars being stolen from their account.
Now Liberty is putting out another warning while they investigate suspicious cream colored envelopes complete with a bar code circulated in residential neigborhoods. Liberty police say the envelopes have been left door-to-door and are similar to the utility pay envelopes. But the utility is warning customers to not use the envelopes saying there’s no guarantee the money will be delivered to the right address.
We left messages with the Liberty water department as phone lines are busy and a voice recording says the utility is responding to customer calls. A news release asks consumers with complaints related to the phone scam or suspicious envelopes to call the Liberty Police Department at
(816) 439-4701 .
The news release adds that the City of Liberty will never call citizens to ask for direct bank account information, or for credit/debit card numbers.
