MILWAUKEE – Under Wisconsin law, it is illegal for a utility company to disconnect services from November 1st to April 15th. With that deadline coming up, the energy community is warning customers to watch out for scammers that prey on people with unpaid energy bills.
Spokesperson for We Energies Brendan Conway says scammers are smart enough to ramp up their efforts near the end of the utility moratorium. Some of the most glaring red flags for a scam are demanding payment or threatening to disconnect service; something Conway says We Energies will never do. Conway says a common avenue for scammers is by calling and pretending to be your utility company.
“Sometimes we’ll have reports of scammers who will call people with a recorded message and say they are from We Energies,” said Conway. “They can manipulate the caller I.D. so that it says We Energies. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily us, you’ll call them back and now they’ve got you hooked.”
In the event of a phone call scam, Conway strongly suggests hanging up and contacting We Energies via the phone number on your bill or in the app, 800-662-4797.
According to Conway, some scammers have altered their strategies to account for digital currency: “We’ll never ask you to pay with a pre-paid debit card or something like Venmo or PayPay. Certainly not Bitcoin. Those are some of the newer ones.”
Finally, Conway described another recent scamming method that involving a scammer purchasing ads that will appear at the top of search engines when a person searches ‘We Energies Bill’. The ads won’t say ‘We Energies’ but they will say something along the lines of ‘Bill Help’. Conway advised against calling the first phone number at the top of a search results page.
If anyone suspects being a victim of these scams, Conway suggests the same course of action: calling the phone number on your bill or in the app, 800-662-4797.
For anyone worried about paying an overdue utility bill, Conway said they are happy to help their customers.
“Lets say you get behind on your bill and you get overwhelmed. Not a problem at all. All you have to do is set up a payment plan, stay on that payment plan, and you are not at risk of disconnection.”
