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OK, so maybe you wouldn't fall for a phone call or text from "DTE Energy" threatening to cut your power within the hour for an unpaid bill, then directing you to a Bitcoin ATM (yes, they exist) to make an "emergency payment." But that doesn't mean your grandparents wouldn't. Or someone else close to you.
Susan Tompor at the Free Press details the story of David Bayle, of rural St. Clair County, who received such a message earlier this month, asking for $1,600 immediately, lest they cut power to the farmhouse where he lives with his daughter and grandson. That's a disturbing prospect to confront in cold weather, Bayle said. even the well pump wouldn't work without electricity, depriving the family not only of heat, but water as well.
Needless to say, or perhaps necessary to say, is that this isn't the way utilities work. The shutoff process has multiple steps, and doesn't involve calls by men with foreign accents, demanding Bitcoin or gift cards, which is what Bayle ended up buying when the Bitcoin ATM didn't work for him.
He's never fallen for a scam before this one. He knows to hang up on the folks impersonating the IRS and demanding tax payments. But the timing on this scam in the cold winter was different.
He has a tree trimming service, a seasonal job, that leaves him with a limited amount of savings in the winter. So he really didn't want to take any chances with his electricity.
Everyone's vulnerable sometimes. Be aware.
