Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Issues February 2026 Scams Update

(Walhalla, SC)-------------------------------------In our continuing efforts to educate and inform our citizens, and to prevent them from becoming victims of scams, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is releasing today our February 2026 Scams Update.  

A Deputy from the Uniform Patrol Bureau spoke with a victim of a Utility Scam.  According to information obtained during the investigation, the victim made two fraudulent payments after receiving calls from someone claiming to be from a utility company.

In one instance, the victim stated that he received a call stating that he was behind on his utility payment.  The victim paid approximately $200.00 over the phone using his debit card in order to pay the remaining balance. 

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office recommends that if you receive a phone call from your utility provider, unsolicited, stating that you are behind on your payments or there is a balance due, hang up the phone and call your utility provider to verify that they have tried to contact you.  Make sure they are aware that someone is calling and impersonating an employee of their company in regards to a scam or fraud attempt. 

The Sheriff’s Office also recently took a report after speaking with a victim who stated that she gave her banking information to a caller.  The caller called the victim several times back to back.

The caller identified themselves as someone who worked for Bank of America.  The caller stated that they needed the victim’s banking account information due to running electronic maintenance.  After providing the information, the caller told the victim to ignore any messages she may get from her bank.

The victim discovered several days later that approximately $1,400.00 was removed from her banking account through Cash App. 

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office recommends that you should never provide any type of banking account, credit card or debit card information to someone over the phone unless you initiate the contact with a business or company.  If you do business with a particular company, they should already have your account information so that is something that you should not have to provide.  If

you sign up for alerts with your financial institution, do not ignore those alerts.  Contact your financial institution immediately should you receive an alert.

Here are some other recommendations and information from the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office to consider if you have been a victim of a scam or fraud:

·  If you have provided any financial account or personal identifying information to someone in reference to a fraud or scam, make sure to notify law enforcement and request that a report be filed for investigative purposes. 

·  Some companies and businesses may require a police report to be filed before they will begin the process for any type of reimbursement, refund or investigation on their end. 

·  If you file a police report, make sure to obtain a copy of the report for your records in order to show that you have been a victim of a scam or fraud in case your financial account or personal identifying information is used in the future for any fraudulent or malicious purposes. 

Both investigations mentioned in this month’s report have been turned over to an Investigator assigned to the Financial Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigations Bureau.