Scam alert issued for Hampton Shaler Water Authority customers

Sharpsburg Borough officials have issued a scam alert after multiple residents contacted council members and the borough office about a letter from the Hampton Shaler Water Authority asking for $900 for stormwater management.

“I called the Hampton Shaler Water Authority and spoke with the executive director and she confirmed that this was not something they mailed out so we knew it was a scam,” said Christine DeRunk, Sharpsburg Borough manager.

April Winklmann, executive director of the Hampton Shaler Water Authority, said that the municipalities are responsible for stormwater.

“We have nothing to do with stormwater,” Winklmann said. “We don’t bill for that. We don’t collect that. We don’t have anything to do with it.”

Neither Shaler Township or Sharpsburg Borough charge residents for stormwater management.

“We don’t have a lot of information at this time,” DeRunk said. “We don’t know who sent (the letter). We don’t know how widespread it is. There’s not a lot here. We know it’s out there and we want to alert people so they don’t pay it, and don’t think it’s real.”

Winklmann said that the authority has not received any calls or complaints about the letter nor has she seen the letter asking residents for $900.

“The plan is to (notify customers) and if I can get a copy of the letter then we will indicate it as fraud and post it on our website, but I’ve not received anything,” Winklmann said.

Christopher Lovato, Shaler Township manager, said that the townships has not received any complaints about the letter. He said that in the case of scam calls or letters, residents are asked to call the township’s municipal building or the police department’s non-emergency number if they receive any suspicious inquiries.

“First we’d identify whether the request is a real request and then we would turn it over to the police for further investigation,” Lovato said.

DeRunk and Lovato have also not seen the letter in question.

“We do take these scams very seriously,” Lovato said.

DeRunk said that if residents receive a letter, email or phone call that seems suspicious, they should contact borough officials.

“We want people to feel comfortable calling the borough and getting correct information instead of relying on taking a guess about whether a letter is real or not,” DeRunk said.

Winklmann said that customers are encouraged to call the authority if they receive a form of communication that they have questions about.

The Hampton Shaler Water Authority services 10 Allegheny County municipalities, including Sharpsburg Borough, Shaler Township and Hampton Township.