ORANGE City Council staff have reported a scam to police after an elderly resident was telephoned by a person posing as a member of the rates department.
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The council is encouraging elderly residents to take extra caution since the scam has emerged.
The scam-caller told the elderly woman the council was offering a new service where residents could pay their water rates by phone.
The woman gave her credit card details to the caller.
The latest water rates accounts were mailed out last week.
Paying rates by phone has always been one of the payment options, but for security reasons council staff never call offering this service.
Rates staff will only call residents if they are behind in their rates and they are seeking to make an arrangement for payments to be made.
If residents have any concerns about the bonafides of a caller, they should call the council, and not give their credit card numbers to anyone who calls unsolicited.
In this case, the elderly woman reported the incident to the council and also asked her bank to block any unusual payments.