Scammers are reportedly targeting the area.

Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services is warning customers to be wary of phone scammers after two local businesses recently received suspicious phone calls. In both cases, the caller identified themselves as an Alliant Energy employee and asked for payment to prevent service from being interrupted.

Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services urged caution in response to the scam callers claiming to represent the cooperative or other utility and asking for payments.

“If contacted by someone claiming to be from our cooperative or other utility requesting personal or financial information, members should hang up, locate the official organizing phone number online or in the phone directory, and place a call to the official number to confirm details,” Mary Nelson, Freeborn-Mower’s director of co-op relations, wrote in a press release.

Those who believe themselves to have been the victim of this or any other scam are encouraged to contact the local law enforcement agency and make a report.

Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services and 11 other area energy cooperatives closed on a deal earlier this year to acquire of Alliant Energy’s electric service territory in southern Minnesota.

The Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services office is open to members 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Online and automated voice response phone system services, such as bill payments and account balances, are available to you around-the-clock except for brief maintenance periods. For more information, visit our website www.fmcs.coop.

If you have additional questions about your bill, payment options or your account, please contact the cooperative by phone at 507-373-6421 or 800-734-6421 during office hours or by email at memberservices@fmcs.coop.

Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services is a member-owned and member-controlled electric cooperative celebrating 79 years of delivering retail electric power and energy solutions to its nearly 20,000 member-owners in Freeborn and Mower Counties.