BUCKINGHAM — Scams in the surrounding communities are ramping back up, just in time for the holidays. According to a press release,  last Monday alone, Dominion Energy received reports of 100 scam calls — people pretending to be Dominion Energy employees, insisting that the customer’s account is overdue and would be cut off if payment is not received within an hour.

“The victim is then directed to purchase a prepaid card at a local store and call back a number provided by the scammer,” officials said in a press release. “The greeting at the call back number sounds exactly like Dominion’s, but it’s a fake.”

As of Nov. 3, 2,678 customers reported to Dominion this year that they received a fraudulent telephone call attempting to collect a debt. Collectively, the suspect attempted to gain $782,314. 

“They were able to obtain $120,425 by fraudulent means. Residences and business were targeted,” officials said in the release. “These numbers represent a 49 percent increase since 2016.”