Tis the season for scams

State police are reporting a couple of scams are targeting residents in the Jasper State Police District.

According to Sgt. Philip Hensley, the department has received complaints from residents in Southern Indiana that scammers are contacting them by telephone pretending to be representatives of Vectren Energy and Duke Energy. The scammers say a technician is on the way to shut the resident’s power off unless they are able to pay them with a credit card.

In another incident, a woman reported she was contacted by someone who told her she had passed bad check nine years ago. The caller stated there was a warrant for her arrest but the woman could clear it up by paying $3,000.

According to Hensley, the trend in scamming now is to purport to be a company a person is familiar with and then pressure is applied to make the victim believe they have done something wrong.

“Do not fall victim to this,” Hensley said. “The easiest thing to do is immediately hang up the phone and end the call. If you do not recognize the phone number calling you, you do not have to answer the call. If it is important enough, the caller will leave you a voicemail. Do not provide any of your personal or financial information over the telephone.”