City warns about phony workers seeking access, money

Residents are being warned to be vigilant when dealing with anyone claiming to be an Anaheim city worker. Phony tree trimmers, utility workers and others have cased homes or bilked homeowners when collecting payments in Anaheim or elsewhere. At least four such complaints have been filed so far with the Police Department, said city spokeswoman Ruth Ruiz. We re hearing about this happening in other cities, not just in Anaheim, Ruiz said. We don t know if the cases are connected, but it s part of the investigation. Fraudulent city workers have claimed they needed to trim trees in the backyards of homes for Anaheim Public Utilities, apparently to case the homes. Other times, fake utility workers showed up at homes claiming that they needed to replace equipment. Others solicited utility payments over the phone, using spoofing software that allows them to falsely display the city s name on caller-identification systems. Some residen Dot MoneyPaks from local stores and then using them to make bogus payments over the phone - but the city of Anaheim doesn t use MoneyPaks. Anaheim employees will not make unsolicited calls nor visit homes to collect payments, Ruiz