It’s the middle of the winter, it’s extremely cold, and one evening your home phone rings. The caller introduces himself as a representative of your heat/ gas provider. He says they didn’t receive your last monthly payment and informs you they are stopping their services for your house.
While you are trying to argue that you actually paid the bill, he keeps saying: “I am sorry, I am looking at your account right now and it says last time was paid two months ago. Sorry m’am, if we don’t receive the payment by tomorrow, we will stop heating your house”. He then offers you the option of paying over the phone, asking for your credit card number.
As nobody wants to have their house without heat when it is -22 degrees outside, the scam occurs more often than you think.
How to avoid: if you know you paid, just hang up the phone.