PSE&G teams with more than 80 North American utilities to stop scams
November 15th 2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, more than 3 million consumers filed fraud complaints last year. Phone scams are among the most common complaints. To combat these con artists, Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), New Jersey’s largest utility, joined forces with more than 80 energy companies across North America to educate people how to spot a scam. The collaborative designated the third Wednesday in November
“Utilities United Against Scams Day.”
How the most common payment scam works:
- Someone pretending to be a utility employee calls and threatens shut-off within an hour if they do not receive immediate payment via a prepaid card.
- Victims are given a phony phone number to call back after they purchase the cards from a retail store.
- When the customer calls back, they may hear voice response prompts that mimic those they would hear when calling a real customer service line. Some of these criminals use caller ID spoofing technology to replicate PSE&G’s number.
- A fake representative asks for the numbers on the prepaid card or receipt. Within seconds the money is gone.
Scam red flags:
- The caller becomes angry and aggressive, telling the customer his or her account is past due and service will be disconnected if a large payment isn’t made – often within less than an hour.
- The thief specifically demands the customer pay with a prepaid card or wire transfer.
“If a caller directs you to go to a local store to purchase a prepaid card to pay your bill, it is likely a scam,” said Greg Dunlap, PSE&G vice president of customer operations. “If you receive a call and are in doubt, hang up and call us at the phone number listed on our website or your PSE&G bill.”
The only way to protect against these scams is for customers to be cautious. Before terminating service, PSE&G alerts customers in a number of ways: messages on their bill, letters and phone calls. While the utility accepts credit cards, prepaid cards and money transfers to pay bills, PSE&G would never demand a specific type of payment and threaten immediate service termination.
“Hiding behind an untraceable phone, scammers know it is doubtful they’ll be caught,” said Dunlap. “By educating people how to spot a scam, our Utilities United collaborative aims to spare many would-be victims and make the thieves’ underhanded jobs a lot harder.”
Report all scam attempts by calling your utility and local police department, and file a complaint with the FTC at www.ftc.gov/complaint.