New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E), are reminding customers to be aware and informed about potential scammers, and to never give personal information to callers or individuals they cannot authenticate as a NYSEG or RG&E representative. While scams are ongoing throughout the year, the company has noted more aggressive tactics being used this spring.
“The best way to combat these types of scams is to stay alert and informed,” said Christine Alexander, vice president of Customer Service at NYSEG and RG&E. “If you’re uncertain of the identity of the caller or a visitor to your door, contact our customer service team immediately. We are always here to help you.”
NYSEG: call 800.572.1111
RG&E: call 800.743.2110
As a reminder, NYSEG and RG&E will never:
- Send an employee inside your personal residence to use a computer or other device.
- Have an employee take a photo of your electric bill.
- Send an employee to your home to offer a discount, offer a cost-saving program, or encourage you to sign up for a service.
- Ask customers to make a payment with a pre-paid debit card or other non-refundable methods.
Customers should also be aware of some known scammer tactics:
- Fraudulent phone numbers: Caller ID may show the call is coming from the utility. In some cases, the perpetrators pretend to have a specific knowledge about the customers they’re calling and may even provide a callback number with a recorded greeting similar to NYSEG and RG&E’s customer service line.
- Fraudulent emails and texts: Scammers are using digital correspondence to portray themselves as the utility.
- Door-to-door imposters: Scammers have posed as NYSEG and RG&E employees, claiming they are responding to reports that scammers are in the neighborhood.
Types of scams that customers should look out for include:
- Disconnection threat: Someone posing as a utility representative, aggressively telling a customer their account is past due and a crew is on the way to shut off service unless an immediate payment is made – typically using a prepaid debit or another non-refundable form of payment.
- Meter payment: The caller or in-person scammer instructs the customer to pay with cash or a prepaid debit card to cover the costs of a new meter or meter upgrade.
- Information request: The caller insists that a recent payment encountered a system glitch and was not completed, or that the company had not received the payment at all. The perpetrator then asks the customer to make a false payment using a prepaid debit card or by providing personal bank account information.
