Have you logged into your Facebook page and seen President Barack Obama offer to pay your utility bill? It sounds pretty far-fetched, doesn’t it? Well, people are falling for it.
Basically, the message says that the government will pay your utility bill. You just need to give up your bank account info, with a routing number.
Sure, it would be nice to have your utility bills paid for by the government, but think about it this way: when’s the last time the government reached out through Facebook to give you money?
“The federal government is not going to use social media as a method to try to garner applications to increase its number of grant applications,” said David Beasley, of the Dallas Better Business Bureau.
The government will look for more traditional forms of media to get the message out, if any. There’s no such thing as the “utility assistance program.’ Sure, the big guys get bailed out, but saving you from getting your electricity shut off will not save the country from a major economic downfall.
What the scammers are looking for is your personal info and the money in your bank account.
You may even get a fake bank account number, and think you’ve paid your bill and it never got paid. Your utilities could get shut off because you tried to take advantage of this fake program.
