Staff Report //November 19, 2019//
Duke Energy is expanding a campaign to protect its nearly 8 million customers from utility-impostor scammers. The company, a founding member of Utilities United Against Scams, is reminding customers of tactics used by scammers to steal their money.
More than 37,500 Duke Energy customers have reported scam attempts since the company began tracking reports in June 2015. About 6% to 7% fell victim to the scams, losing a total of nearly $2 million, according to a news release.
From January through September 2019, more than 10,000 Duke Energy customers reported receiving a scam attempt. Of these, 552 customers, or about 5.5%, paid the scammers, totaling nearly $316,000 in losses, the release said.
“Scammers’ techniques are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, making it harder for utility customers to differentiate between scams and legitimate messages,” Jared Lawrence, Duke Energy’s vice president of customer operations for Piedmont Natural Gas and Metering Services, said in the release.
Phone scammers posing as utility providers call and insist customers are delinquent on their bills. The scammer typically claims a disconnection is pending, rigs caller ID to make it look like the call is from a utility provider and demands the money in the form of a prepaid debit card.
Common scam tactics include:
Customers who suspect they have been victims of fraud or who feel threatened during contact with one of these scammers should:
The Utilities United Against Scams is a consortium of more than 140 U.S. and Canadian electric, water and natural gas companies, and their respective trade associations, that raises awareness of utility scams targeting customers.
The consortium has helped shut down nearly 5,000 toll-free phone numbers used by utility impostor scammers, the release said.