Full Notification

The St. Louis Police Department was notified today of a scam in other parts of the state where:

Customers are being informed in a phone call that they could avoid having water service cut-off by taking specific steps. In this case, the caller informed the customer that they were a “City worker” and that the person needed to go to Walgreen’s and purchase a prepaid VISA card or Green Dot prepaid card to make payment over the phone. In these types of scams, the customers are told that the quickest way to make their payment is by getting the preloaded debit card and calling back to a toll free phone number and providing the account numbers on the prepaid card (some scammers may ask the person to leave a message with the account numbers on the prepaid card).

This type of scam has occurred in other states and in other Michigan communities. The scam typically involves preloaded debit cards (the Green Dot prepaid card is a popular choice) where the thieves pose as utility company employees and threaten disconnection of service unless an immediate payment is made using a prepaid card. The City of St. Louis or utilities employees will not use phone calls to require customers to make a payment over the phone to avoid a cutoff of service. City of St. Louis utilities payments are accepted through the mail, on-line via credit card payment, or in person at city hall.

The police department has also been notified that yesterday, a person claiming to be a utilities worker was attempting to gain access to a local home to "photograph" the utility set up at the home. The City of St. Louis DOES NOT have any utility workers going door to door to photograph utility set ups and HAS NOT contracted with any company to do this for the city.

The suspect was a young white male wearing a black hoodie. He is described as approximately 5'8" - 5'10", thin, 20-30 years of age and had a slight beard. This suspect was on foot.