So by now, you’ve probably heard that the City of Binghamton shut off the water to a whole bunch of properties whose water payments were overdue for like a YEAR.

The city made about $500,000 by pressing some area property owners to pony up the cash.  Kudos to them.

But now, some enterprising criminals took advantage of the water cut-off scare by posing as city water officials and scamming an area resident who was told his water would be cut off if he didn’t pay up in cash!

Now we’re not in the habit of giving kudos to criminals, but if we decided to try a life of crime on for size, we only hope we’d be this conniving and clever.

Caught up with Andrew Block from the mayor’s office to ask him some questions about the scam…

So how did this guy pull it off?  Did he have a uniform or clipboard?  How did he convince people he was legit?

The scam reportedly involved two men – white, and in their twenties or early thirties, and wearing dark pants and white shirts. They showed up at 6am, and drove a white truck. Also, by all accounts, they only perpetrated the scam at one property.

Did he actually get any money?

The men reportedly got $150 from the person whose property they approached.

How would the city’s water dept REALLY contact you if they were trying?

As Mayor Ryan stated last week, door-to-door water bill collection is not and has never been City policy. Residents wanting to pay their water can do so by mail, online, and at the Treasurer’s Office on City Hall’s second floor.

The Water Department has worked in collaboration with other departments to contact users facing shut-offs in the following ways:

1. Shut-off notices sent via certified mail roughly three-to-four weeks prior to the stated shut-off procedure.

2. Shut-off notices posted on the properties two-to-three weeks prior to the procedure.

And that’s just the info that is specific to those facing the shut-offs. The City has spread the word about the water reforms to the public in general through a variety of media over the past five-to-six months. Since April, these reforms have been featured in about 10 Press and Sun Bulletin articles and more than 20 local news broadcasts. Additionally, city officials included a bookmark summarizing all the reform changes with the August water bill, created a dedicated page on the city’s website to explain and clarify all the changes, and then dispatched officials to seven neighborhood meetings across the city last month to explain the reform package.

We’ve also been communicating with the Department of Social Services, the Office of the Aging, Section 8, and member agencies of the Homeless Coalition in order to minimize the hardship any residents might experience from interruption of service. The City has also been in contact with Broome Community College and Binghamton University to address any issues faced by students living off-campus. Both schools have notified their students of the shut-off procedure, and Binghamton University’s Off-Campus College last week made an attorney available for consultation.

We’ve done everything possible to educate and inform our users of the policy. While we’re pleased the shut-off lists have dropped significantly, many accounts remain, and we’re concerned for their well-being.

If a tenant’s water is REALLY shut off because their LANDLORD didn’t pay, is there anything they can do?

If a tenant’s water is shut-off because their landlord didn’t pay, the tenant has several options.
First of all, they can pay the water bill – as well as a state-mandated $50 service fee – directly to the City, which will then turn the water back on as soon as possible; in cases like this, State law says that tenants can legally deduct the water bill fee from their regular rent, and doing so is certainly a way for tenants to recoup their possible losses. The City recommends that those who take that route seek legal consultation from our local service agencies. 

Second, tenants can seek other forms of support from the service agencies. Department of Social Services, for example, can provide support in the way of temporary shelter.

Again, the City wants to minimize the hardship faced by anyone affected by the shut-offs, and we’re maintaining close contact with the service agencies to ensure we continue to provide residents and business owners as much support as possible.