Sumter Police Department officers, Duke Energy explain common COVID-19 scams

Duke Energy and the Sumter Police Department collaborated with utilities across North America to bring awareness to and educate the public on criminal scam tactics for the fifth-annual Utility Scam Awareness Day.

The annual Utility Scam Awareness Day, which was Tuesday, was created by Utilities United Against Scams (UUAS), a consortium of nearly 150 U.S. and Canadian electric, water and natural gas companies and their respective trade associations.

It is part of a week-long International Scam Awareness Week, an advocacy and awareness campaign focused on educating utility customers and exposing the tactics used by scammers.

"As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it's absolutely critical to remind all utility customers to beware of impostors attempting to scam them," said Theo Lane, government and community relations manager for Duke Energy. "We've made great progress as an industry in getting the word out the past few years, and the numbers continue to improve. But we must continue to keep our customers informed and aware so they don't become the next victims. Together, we can stop scams."

Duke Energy - a founding member of UUAS - and other member companies have seen an increase in scam attempts appearing to take advantage of the uncertainty of the pandemic. In addition to the frequent impostor scam, some new tactics include bogus COVID-19 references to steal personal information.

"This type of crime most often targets our elderly population through fear and deception," Sumter Police Chief Russell Roark said. "The more we educate people about utility scams and other methods of fraud, we can reduce the number of senior adults and others who may fall vulnerable."

Though impostors continue to target utility customers, UUAS members and partners have succeeded in taking nearly 9,400 scam telephone numbers out of operation, said Tonyia McGirt, public information officer for the Sumter Police Department.

When the UUAS campaign started in 2016, more than 9% of Duke Energy customers who reported scams lost money, and so far, less than 3% have reported falling for scams this year, McGirt said.

In the first 10 months of 2020, Duke Energy had about 3,800 customers in South Carolina report scam attempts. Of these customers, 121 paid the scammers, which resulted in nearly $95,000 lost.

Across all states served by Duke Energy - the Carolinas, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana - that number is nearly $400,000.

Common scam tactics include:

- Threat to disconnect. Scammers may aggressively tell customers their utility bill is past due, and service will be disconnected - usually within an hour - if a payment is not made.

- Request for immediate payment. Scammers may instruct a customer to purchase a prepaid card, cryptocurrency, or to send funds via a mobile app to make a bill payment.

- Request for prepaid card or using certain mobile apps. Customers are instructed to pay with a prepaid debit card. The impostor asks the for the prepaid card's number, which grants instant access to the card's funds. More recently, customers have also been instructed to send a payment through a mobile app. Duke Energy currently does not accept payments through the Cash App, Venmo or Zelle apps. However, customers can make payments on Duke Energy's mobile app available in the Apple App Store for iOS and the Google Play Store for Android.

- Personal information. During the COVID-19 crisis, criminals are promising to mail refund checks for overpayments on their accounts if they can confirm their personal data, including birthdays and, in some cases, Social Security numbers. Duke Energy will apply refunds as a credit to customers' accounts and will not contact customers to verify personal information by phone, email or in person in order to mail a check.

Protect yourself:

- Customers should never purchase a prepaid card to avoid service interruption. Utility companies do not specify how customers should make a bill payment and always offer a variety of ways to pay a bill, including online payments, phone payments, automatic bank drafts, mail or in person.

- If someone threatens immediate service interruption, customers should be aware. Customers with past due accounts receive multiple advanced notices, typically by mail and in their regular monthly bill. Utilities will never notify of a disconnection in one hour or less.

- If customers suspect someone is trying to scam them, they should hang up, delete the email or shut the door. The utility should be contacted immediately at the number on the most recent monthly bill or on the utility's official website, not the phone number the scammer provides. If customers ever feel that they are in physical danger, they should call 911.

Visit www.duke-energy.com/stopscams for more information, or contact the Sumter Police Department at (803) 436-2700.