A Calgary pub owner is warning others after foiling a popular fraud targeting both businesses and consumers.
Kenan Poskovic, the owner of Brickwell Taphouse, alerted Global News to the so-called ‘utility disconnection’ scam last Friday.
Poskovic said that’s when his staff received an urgent phone call — supposedly from Calgary utility company Enmax — advising that the business had missed several power payments.
“Enmax called. They are shutting off our electricity in 45 minutes,” he said he was told.
Poskovic was given a number to call back, which he did immediately. He said after going through several “legitimate” sounding prompts, he finally reached the “claims” department.
“We were outstanding a certain amount of money,” he said the person on the other end said. “It was about $3,200 that we didn’t pay.”
Sensing it was a scam, he said he called his wife to look over their power bills. She did and didn’t find any monies owing.
Still, he decided to play along.
“I said, ‘What do I do? Where do I pay?’ And he said, ‘You have to go to one of our locations in Calgary, I’ll give you an address, but this has to be paid in cash.’”
The scammer, who remained on the line, also sent Poskovic a QR code “needed” to make the deposit at a bitcoin machine.
Bitcoin machine at Calgary convenience store.
Courtesy: Kenan…
