Two Athens residents notified city authorities Monday that they had a shady telephone conversation with someone claiming to be a bill collector.
Two Athens residents notified city authorities Monday that they had a shady telephone conversation with someone claiming to be a bill collector.
The caller, who told residents that their water service billing payment was overdue and that water would be turned off immediately if they didn’t provide their credit card information to “renew their service,” ignited suspicion when he — described as a male — mispronounced “Athens” on the phone.
“The citizens were suspicious of the call when the caller repeatedly mispronounced Athens,” Capt. Ralph Harvey said. “The caller was obviously unfamiliar with the area as they mispronounced Athens stressing the ‘a’ like in ‘a car.’”
One caller phoned the Athens Police Department and the other alerted the Athens Utilities Billing Department, which then notified police of that call.
Officers spoke to the two victims of the phone scam. Authorities say neither resident who called the authorities gave out their credit card number to the mysterious caller.
“The citizens did not get much detail as they realized quickly it was bogus,” Harvey said.
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