Park County residents being hit hard with phone scams: “Pay up or Get cut Off.”
Multiple fraudulent phone calls are being received by Park County residents, which have alerted both the Powell Police Department, Cody Police Department and the Park County Sheriff Department regarding the amount of phone scams that are taking place.
In the town of Powell, Wyoming, phone scammers were calling Powell residents, posing as employees for the City of Powell’s Billing Department, demanding instant payment or have your utilities cut off.
The calls are called “ghost calls.” A “ghost call” is where scammers using a computer and a VPN which moves the internet calls from location to location enabling the actual location of the caller to be cleverly masked, thwarting any attempt by Law Enforcement to pin point the origination of the location of the actual caller.
On or about October 20, 2021 Cody Wyoming residents were also hit with these “Ghost calls” using this same method in disguising their actual origination of the location of the calls. Any area code can be assigned temporarily to each call, never allowing the actual ID of the caller to be revealed.
The scammers can spoof the phone numbers making it appear that the call is local when it is not.
If you have a delinquent utility bill, the city will leave a automated call, the utility customer is requested to call City Hall about the delinquent utility bill. Never make a payment by phone.
The actual phone numbers are:
Cody City Hall 307-527-7511
Powell Utility Bill Department 307-754-7263
If you receive a scammer call or you are not sure, tell the scammer that you are going to hang up and call the city yourself to take care of the bill and or check on your account status. Doing this will make the scammer quickly hang up as they are now exposed.
