Port St. Lucie Police warn residents and business owners of FPL phone scam.
On June 7, 2017, Port St. Lucie Police went to a local restaurant located in the 1700 block of SE Port St. Lucie Boulevard for reports of a FPL phone scam.
Officers learned that the victim received a phone message from someone claiming to be a representative of Florida Power and Light. The message said that the victim was behind on the FPL bill. Then they said FPL will be shutting off power to the business. The victim called the number left on the message and spoke to a person impersonating a FPL employee. The suspect told the victim that she could not pay online because the payment would not go through in time to avoid the power being disconnected. The victim went to a local store and bought a Green Dot card in the amount of $500.00. They called the number back and gave them the card number. The victim was told to reload the card to pay the remaining amount of the bill.
The victim became suspicious and made contact with her husband who in turn called their accountant. The accountant told the victim’s that their electric bill was up to date and that they had just been scammed.
Then on June 8
Port St. Lucie Police received a report of an employee of another restaurant located in the 1000 block of Port St. Lucie Boulevard who was also called by a person impersonating a representative of FPL. The victim in this case was also told to get a Green Dot card in the amount of $500.00 and after the victim gave the number of the card to the suspect he was told to reload the card to pay the remaining amount. As the victim went to reload the Green Dot card at Walgreens he became suspicious and called police.
