New scam claims that President Obama will pay your utility bills

Although if true they might help his re-election chances, recent claims that President Obama will pay your utility bills through a new federal program are actually scams. The scammers have reportedly used telephone calls, fliers, social media and text messages in several different states to try to lure their victims into giving the crooks their Social Security numbers and bank routing numbers.  If the victims provides the requesting information, he or she is given a fraudulent bank routing number to pay their bill through an automated telephone payment service.

No matter how hot it is, consumers should not believe these scams.  The end result if they do is likely that their identity ends up being stolen.

The primary reason so many people are falling for this scam (2,000 so far in Tampa, FL and 10,000 so far in New Jersey) is that it appears to work ... for a little while.  The payments seem to go through and get credited to the victims' accounts.  The victims then spread the word to family and friends, only to later learn that their payment is rescinded when its too late to warn the people the original victim told about the "federal program".

Don't fall for this scam.  But if you already have and do end up a victim of identity theft, remember that I am more than willing to help you.