Obama will pay your utility bill

[Kestrel]

This scam has an interesting twist:

Obama paying utility bills? Scam victims nationwide think so

The twist is that the "good news" is being spread both on Facebook and by real live door-to-door solicitors. The guy at the front door asks for personal information from the victim, then provides the victim with a bogus account number and routing number to use when paying the bill. Initially the "payment" seems to go through, so the happy victim posts the good news on social media and refers the scammers to friends.

The person knocking on doors may not even realize he's perpetrating a scam. In some places the scam artists recruited people to be a grass roots "campaign workers" and provided them with "Vote for the President" literature and survey boards.

We're all seeing door-to-door political campaign canvassers now, and getting political phone calls. We can expect to see this scam around for a while.