An unfortunate modern reality is that there are plenty of individuals trying their best to scam unsuspecting people out of money. Plenty of these scams involve the utility industry. A customer informed us today that a man called them stating he was with “the electric and gas company” and said they’d overpaid their bill and were due a refund. He asked the customer to provide their credit or debit card information so he could deposit the refund. Our savvy customer immediately recognized the scam attempt, hung up and called us informing us of the scam.
Utility scammers typically use two methods to scam you. They either state that you are past due and your service is about to be turned off unless an immediate payment is made, or they say you’ve overpaid, won part of a settlement, or have been awarded a prize and ask for your financial account information so they can provide you with the money or process your prize.
To help educate our customers about scams and how to not fall prey to scammers, we’ve created a webpage discussing utility scams and also describing the ways that we contact customers. If you’ve not read it, click here. This same page also includes some helpful videos and links to websites that will help educate you about scams and how to avoid being a scam victim.