A Galesburg nail salon is the victim of a scam that the Galesburg Police Department says has been on-going.
Police reports state someone claiming to be with Ameren IP called #1 Nail Salon and demanded a $100 payment via MoneyGram or the business’ power would be turned off.
Owners of the salon complied but the calls kept coming, demanding more payments.
A few days later they had wired over $1,800 at which point they contacted local authorities.
The GPD called the number and got a recording of a company that called themselves Mid America Energy, but when an officer spoke with a person and identified himself, the person on the other end immediately hung up.
Lt. Russ Idle of the GPD tells WGIL it is possible a company would call to make you aware of delinquent payments.
“First off, hopefully people know whether they’re up to date on their payments or not,” Idle says. “And if they get a call like that, they can certainly hang up and call them back at the actual phone number of the company.”
Idle says when someone is tricked into sending a MoneyGram tracking down the culprit or recovering funds is possible but unlikely.
“Things can be done either out of state or sometimes out of the country,” Idle says, “so tracing them and getting action taken is very difficult.”
He adds a red flag should immediately go up if any unsolicited calls ask for personal information.
