A Winnipegger is warning others about a sophisticated scam he says he nearly fell for.

Destiny Funk said people pretending to work for Manitoba Hydro tried to persuade her to deposit money into a Bitcoin machine, using lots of personal information and elaborate theatrics to make the whole thing seem “very realistic.”

On Monday afternoon, the 26-year-old man received a call from someone claiming to be a Hydro technician and said they had a work order to cut off his power within an hour due to unpaid bills.

Funk said he knew the person’s name and address, and they appeared perfectly legitimate.

“Money comes out of my account every month,” Funk told the man. “The ‘technician’ said, quote: ‘I’m just a technician… You’ll want to contact them directly.'”

Funk said the man who called from the 1-800 number gave him another number for Hydro and even gave him a series of work orders to give to a representative.

“The congratulatory message says ‘Welcome to Manitoba Hydro Business Centre. Please press 1 for this, please press 2 for billing,'” Funk said.

“After listening to hold music and other stuff, I connect in like 30 seconds.”

‘Totally fake’

Funk said he then contacted a man named John who claimed to be a Hydro agent. John told her the payments were two months late and asked for the transaction numbers to see if she had made any payments before.

When Funk offered to send him a screenshot instead, John told him he should open a ticket and follow up the next day. The man said there was nothing he could do to stop the work order.

“I’m not going to go without power all day,” Funk told him. “He said, ‘The only thing you can do in this situation is pay the balance.'”

The woman said John never asked her to pay over the phone, which would have been an immediate red flag.

Instead, he told him to go to Hydro headquarters to resolve the issue himself. When Funk said he couldn’t, John suggested he go to an “authorized dealer.”

The man listed some locations, including a nearby convenience store on Elizabeth Road. He told Funk there was a kiosk inside where he could pay, but it only required cash.

Funk said that’s when alarm bells went off. He told John he was going to the center instead. When he arrived at the office, a real Hydro employee told him the whole thing was “totally fake.”

“They had the last four digits of my account number… they had my email address, my home address, obviously my phone number,” Funk said, and he also knew the correct amounts he would have owed had he not done so. mercenary.

“This is the craziest, most elaborate (scam) I have ever encountered.”

Funk said that after he posted about it on social media, people told him that the stores John mentioned all had Bitcoin kiosks. He said he believed he was tricked into making the payment there.

Windsor Park Convenience, the store where Funk was asked to pay, warned customers about the scam on social media and said their business was not involved.

Hydro is aware of the fraud

Manitoba Hydro spokesman Peter Chura said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the utility was aware of the fraud.

He warned that customers may be more vulnerable to similar schemes right now due to the Canada Post strike that prevents customers from receiving their paper bills.

The spokesperson said Hydro does not make one-off, last-minute threats to shut off anyone’s power and does not accept credit cards, Interac e-transfers, cryptocurrency or phone payments.

While anyone can pay their bills at certain businesses, customers should call Hydro or check their website to verify their location, he said.

Manitoba Hydro made a public post on X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday afternoon, saying the utility had received a report of fraud and that customers should contact Hydro directly if they receive a suspicious call.

Funk said that although he didn’t fall into this trap himself, others may not be as lucky.

“I haven’t lost anything except a frustrating hour of my time. But there are a lot of people who will fall for it, and I think older people in particular will fall into that trap,” he said, adding that it was still unclear how this happened. The scammers managed to get all his information.

“I hate to even admit it, but if they potentially asked for my credit card information…with all that personal detail and everything they have about me, I think I could actually give that away,” he said.

Anyone who receives a similar request for urgent payment should “hang up the call, ignore the message, or close the door,” Chura said.