The arrival of cold weather in many parts of the U.S. has brought out scammers, impersonating utility companies and threatening to cut off service for non-payment. The nation’s utility companies are warning their customers to keep their guard up.
Most of these utility scams work much the same way. The scammer usually calls the intended victim and says service is being cut off immediately. The only way to prevent it, they are told, is to make an immediate payment, usually with gift cards.
Pacific Gas & Electric says reports of scams targeting PG&E customers have remained alarmingly high throughout 2024. In fact, the company says there have been nearly 15,000 reports year-to-date with customer losses of over $334,000, and an average loss of $628. It says theses scams usually increase at this time of year.
"Scammers don't take the holidays off. Stress and distraction create a window of opportunity for scammers to deploy their latest strategies to defraud and exploit consumers," said Matt Foley, lead scam investigator for PG&E. "Remember, PG&E will not contact you for the first time within one hour of service disconnection, and we will never request payment by a pre-paid debit card or via online payment services like Zelle or Venmo."
Michelle Henry, senior vice president of Customer Experience at FirstEnergy, says education is the best way to avoid these scams.
“While we take significant measures to ensure the safety and security of our customer account information, we urge you to be on guard against impostors who claim to be associated with our company," she said.
Henry says well in advance of an actual disconnection date, FirstEnergy utility customers who are behind on their accounts will be sent written notice of their account status with instructions on how to avoid disconnection of service. They are not contacted the day before.