Scammers take thousands of dollars from local businesses

The Imperial Irrigation District is warning people about the latest scam that is targeting local businesses.

IID officials said a local business lost over $2,000 to this scam.

The scammers call or appear in person claiming they’re with the IID. In some cases, they are wearing authentic-looking uniforms and vehicles made to look like district vehicles.

Scammers said they’re going to turn off the service if the victim doesn’t pay immediately. They also tell the victims to purchase a pre-paid card from Walmart or Walgreen. They then give the victim a phone number to call that when they do sounds authentic. In some cases , they will have some basic service information from the victim.

Officials said scammers are mostly targeting businesses. There have been four victims amounting to thousands of dollars lost.

IID Communications Specialist Robert Schettler said, “They would go door-to-door and my understanding is basically tell people they need to pay immediately or their power would be shut off. And this is very scary because, as you know, summer is coming.”

IID officials said if anyone gets a call demanding money, to please hang up and call IID directly.

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