A nationwide energy scam has cropped up in Florida. And just to be clear, for the ones who've fallen for it, President Barack Obama will not be picking up your energy tab.
Almost 2,000 Tampa Electric customers were duped into believing the President was going to pay their power bill. Customers say they heard of the deal by text, Facebook message and notices on their front doors.
TECO spokeswoman Sylvia Vega says no one seems to have profited from the prank.
Vega explains what happened:
"All the customers were provided with a fraudulent bank account number that they used to pay their bill through our automated phone and online payment systems. So they'd actually gone in and paid their current bill with this bank account number they were given."
The truth is, that bank account was bogus and it put them behind in their TECO payments.
Sylvia adds the pranksters did ask some customers for personal information, which is always a red flag. She says to avoid such scams always check for a valid ID badge and use common sense.
