The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

B CRIME Continued from page 10 pay an additional $5,000. At this point Kokiw had had enough. fe hung up on the caller, phoned Oakville Hydro's main phone number and soon learned he had been scammed. “Now I feel like an idiot," said Kokiw. The Gakwe man says he ac- tually the scammers back to tell re te reported them to the police, but this just led to one scammer threatening him and his family. The Halton police regional fraud unit is investigating incident A warning on Oakville Hy- dro's website states that a tele- phone: scam is circulating in Oak- ville in which customers are threatened with disconnection wees payment is made immedi- atel wis is not Oakville Hydro,” the w: reat Oakville hte spokesperson Cassandra Umbriaco said the Ontario Energy Board has seen a 70 per cent increase in calls re- porting scam activity. “Whether it be phone calls 9 or text messages, posing as Oak’ Hydro or another energy aa, ny, scammers are constantly evolving their tactics to tric! customers,” she said. "It's important to kee] mind that Oakville Hydro wil never sived within ee Oakville F Hydro willalso never accept payment in the form of Bitcoin or gift cards." Kokiw is not optimistic insur- ance will cover the money he was scammed out of. He said he has gone public with his story in the hope it will prevent others from going through what he has. "I think it's ridiculous that at this time — with the high infla- non and how the economy is go- that people would really take advantage of those busi- nesses that are borderline strug- gling," said Kokiw. "It really leaves a sour taste in your mouth when you believe there isa lot of goodwill out there in the world and then the world just ie to smack you down.” mn how to avoid be- coming the victim of this type of scam visit https: ahihin oakvil lehydro.com/safety/s« fraud. Since 1906 ——— eae @ CONNON —NURSERIES— we’re dreaming of _ AFRESH “CHRISTMA FRESH CUT TREES & FRESH SELECTION OF BOUGHS, WREATHS, NATURAL ACCENTS AND PLANTS @Z0Z ‘pz sequienon ‘Aepsiny | seneeg SIIIAXEO | LL WINTER Farmers Market URY SATURDAY KNOW+GROW OVEMBER 30 UNTIL DECEMBER 17 SIGN UP HERE! 5PM 10 9PM 10AM 10 2PM y ye A fe eS HOURS Since 1906 ——— Monday - Wednesday: 9am to 55m. @ C Oo N N O N WATERDOW! N Thursday & Friday: 9am to 7pm Waterdown, Ontario Saturday: 9pm to 505m —_ — . Sunday: Closed NURSERIES 905.689.7433 « connon.ca woo"uoyEYyapIsUt