{"id":77725,"date":"2015-07-27T07:34:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T12:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=77725"},"modified":"2015-07-27T07:34:22","modified_gmt":"2015-07-27T12:34:22","slug":"utility-bill-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=77725","title":{"rendered":"Utility bill scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/scamalert1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-11701\" alt=\"scamalert1\" src=\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/scamalert1-300x202.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/scamalert1-300x202.png 300w, http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/scamalert1-259x175.png 259w, http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/scamalert1.png 445w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>WAHPETON, N.D. (AP) \u2013 A nonprofit consumer group is urging North Dakotans to be on alert for phone calls or visits from people trying to collect money fraudulently by claiming utility bills are overdue.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota says con artists typically threaten people with halting their service immediately if a payment isn\u2019t made. This scam tends to gain traction during the summer.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bureau President Dana Badgerow tells the Wahpeton Daily News that this is a \u201cparticularly bold scam\u201d that has cost people money nationwide. In one instance, scammers claiming to be with an established utility firm promised $1,000 to a homeowner if they were allowed to come into the property and discuss an energy audit.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The group suggests contacting the utility directly to verify the an account\u2019s status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WAHPETON, N.D. (AP) \u2013 A nonprofit consumer group is urging North Dakotans to be on alert for phone calls or visits from people trying to collect money fraudulently by claiming utility bills are overdue. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota says con artists typically threaten [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77727,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77725\/revisions\/77727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}