Potential targets receive a phone call telling them their account has overdue bills that must be paid or service will be immediately shut off.
Victims are instructed to purchase a pre-paid debit card and give the card information over the phone to pay their bill, according to a company statement.
The scammers then withdraw the funds and leave the victims poorer and potentially none the wiser that they were targeted.
“This is simply not the way we do business,” spokesperson for Duke Energy Lew Middleton said.
Though Duke does at times call customers to talk about their accounts, customers are advised to hang up and call the company back at their toll-free number if they are concerned the call is illegitimate, according to the statement.
The company will never shut off service without multiple attempts to contact the customer and will never ask for payment over the phone, Middleton said.
Duke will also never ask a customer to pay a balance with a pre-paid debit card, according to the company’s website.
Multiple complaints have recently been filed about this particular scam, according to the Indiana Attorney General’s office, which oversees consumer protection in the state.
“I recently checked to see if we had any complaints,” said Molly Johnson, spokesperson for the consumer protection arm of the Attorney General’s office, of the energy bill scam.
“It’s kind of a reoccurring theme.”
This particular bill-paying scam has been active in Bloomington, Terre Haute and Columbus, Ind., Middleton said.
“There’s been an increase in this in the past couple of years,” Middleton said of the scams. “One of the first was a few years ago.”
Though the scams have been increasing in incidence, no clear pattern of targeting or timing has emerged, Middleton said.
“The scammers seem to be more and more sophisticated,” Middleton said. “It’s hard to identify who these people are.”
In addition to the phone call scam, another scam promises to wipe out a customers entire energy bill balance for a cash fee, which is referred to as a “third-party scam” by the company’s website.
The company advises customers who think they have been scammed or ?targeted to immediately file ?a report with the police, ?according to the statement.
Customers may also call Duke directly at 1-800-544-6900 if they have questions regarding the legitimacy of supposed employees.
Additional information about billing scams can be found at www.duke-energy.com or on the Attorney General’s website at www.in.gov/attorneygeneral.
“Really, the best weapon we have against this is information,” Middleton said.
