KITTERY, Maine — Scammers continue to pose as CMP employees, demanding payment and threatening to turn off power.
One scammer who claimed to be from CMP targeted an ice cream shop in Kittery on one of the hottest days this summer and on a day when CMP billing offices were closed.
A manager at the Mrs. and Me Ice Cream Shop got a phone call and was told power would be cut off that Saturday if they didn’t pay their bill. She immediately called Signe LaFrance, the general manager who pays the bills for the store.
“All I could think about was that we had four full freezers of ice cream that we make here,” LaFrance said. “So if I lose that ice cream, we’re completely out of business.”
LaFrance got a copy of the latest bill and called CMP to pay it, but the billing office was closed. So she called the number the scammer left, and it had the exact same CMP recording on it.
The scammer then got on the phone and told her she also had to pay a security deposit.
He told her to buy a Green Dot MoneyPak card at a local grocery store and call him with the activation codes allowing him access to that money.
She was suspicious but was more concerned about all the ice cream melting.
“I felt I had to go do what I needed to do to make sure the electric stayed on,” LaFrance said.
She learned later it was a scam.
“All I could think about was what a fool I was to be taken in like that,” LaFrance said.
It was only when she told her son what had happened that she realized it was a scam. The CMP website states they never shut off power on a weekend. It also lists the prepaid phone scam.