Utilities unite to warn customers against scams
When Duke Energy began examining scam reports, the utility came upon some key clues to a scammer’s tactics.
“We noticed that there was a cyclicality—we would see a spike in activity in some of our regions and respond by increasing the intensity of our customer communications, and the volume of reports in those areas would moderate,” said Jared Lawrence, Duke Energy vice president of Revenue Services, who has been leading a national effort for utility scam alerts. “So, what do you think the scammers do when Duke Energy launches an awareness campaign? They target other utilities’ customers, always shifting to stay ahead of customer awareness campaigns.”
Duke confirmed this by checking phone numbers that scammers previously used to target its customers. When Duke employees called some of those numbers, they were greeted with recorded menus that had been updated to mimic those of other utilities, Lawrence told American Gas.
That discovery sparked an idea: Utilities should combat scammers with a united front. As a seven-state utility experienced in launching cross-regional initiatives, Duke took the lead.
The first “Utilities United Against Scams Day” initiative took place in November, with participation by 90 utilities. It was followed by a weeklong informational campaign via social and traditional media and customer communication. The group will continue to promote awareness and prevention throughout the year and conduct special outreach campaigns each year on the third Wednesday of November.
“It was a relatively easy sell to our peer utilities, and to CS Week, Edison Electric Institute, American Gas Association and Canadian Electricity Association, who have lent great support to our initiatives,” Lawrence said. “By definition, we are a customer-centric industry, and we all have been frustrated and angered by the brazen activities of the criminals posing as utility representatives.”
Some red flags indicative of a scam call include a caller who threatens that service will be terminated in an hour, instructs the homeowner to purchase a prepaid debit card or becomes angry at the customer.
Previously, Duke sent out alerts through materials such as bill messages, customer letters and online content and found that education does work. More than 90 percent of customers who received a call and then reported it to Duke Energy said they did not fall for the scam.