{"id":5624,"date":"2023-12-10T01:35:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T01:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=5624"},"modified":"2023-12-10T01:35:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T01:35:59","slug":"dont-be-fooled-pge-warns-customers-not-to-fall-for-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=5624","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Be Fooled: PG&E Warns Customers Not to Fall for Scams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mark Hedin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you get an email or phone call from PG&E, the power company says, the best thing to do is to quickly hang up or delete it, because it\u2019s most likely just another scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since PG&E began tracking complaints  from swindled customers, it\u2019s tracking more than 60,000 cases, with losses exceeding $2 million in just the past couple of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a Nov. 8 roundtable discussion with ethnic media, PG&E\u2019s Fiona Chan and Matt Foley, along with Pleasant Hill Police Department Detective Stephen Vuong asked for help in getting the word out to everyone, but particularly friends or family who may be less aware of how sophisticated scammers are becoming. \u201cEducation is key,\u201d Chan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most-used scam,\u201d Foley said, \u201cis the threat of a power cutoff due to past-due bills \u2013 the truck is on the way!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides emphasizing that the company does not make bill-collection phone calls, or ever take payments in bitcoin, gift cards, or over Zelle, Venmo or PayPal, the speakers described some of the latest scams they\u2019re hearing about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One is to call a real estate company about a house someone\u2019s trying to sell, to say that the power bill is overdue and the house will be plunged into darkness unless someone makes a payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trick here is that when the owner gets a follow-up call from the Realtor relaying that message, he or she is more likely to think there really is a problem that needs to be solved, because the person telling them about it isn\u2019t a stranger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to call the Realtor,\u201d Foley said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the number and we don\u2019t give it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People tricked into believing they need to make an immediate payment are unlikely to ever see that money again, because part of the thievery involves quickly transferring those funds overseas, out of the reach of law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked with very few people who\u2019ve gotten their money back,\u201d Vuong said. \u201cThey move the money so fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that for 95% of the cases he\u2019s seen, the ill-gotten money quickly left the country. Many of the scams originate in phone banks located overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crooks have figured out that while pretending to be friendly and helpful, they can sometimes stay on the phone with their victim, directing him or her all the way to a nearby convenience store or \u201cpayment kiosk,\u201d and providing step-by-step instructions on buying gift cards and other payment systems \u2013 some involving \u2018crypto currency\u2019 \u2013 while all they\u2019re really doing is helping victims throw their money away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t be fooled by your phone\u2019s \u201ccaller ID\u201d feature, either. Crooks have figured out how to make it look as though their calls are coming from PG&E itself. They\u2019re not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way people get tricked is by \u201csponsored\u201d websites made to look like PG&E\u2019s, that show up at the top of computer searches for the company\u2019s customer service contact information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A web site that a search engine indicates is \u201csponsored\u201d may very well not be PG&E\u2019s but instead be from someone with bad intentions who paid to have that site prominently displayed at the top of search results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look to see that the site is actually pge.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way to do so is to scroll over the address on display, which will sometimes reveal another, different address, masquerading as pge.com. Some of us might want to check with younger members of the family who often are more tech-savvy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a way to report suspected scams, at scamreporting@pge.com<\/a>. But it\u2019s better not to fall for a ruse in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPrevention is best,\u201d Vuong said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tell my 89-year-old Mom, who\u2019s pretty sharp,\u201d Foley said, \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t ever engage in this kind of thing. Everything financial, run through me!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People can be scared into making payments when they\u2019re worried their power is at risk of being cut off, particularly if they\u2019re struggling to pay their bills or know they\u2019re late. But PG&E doesn\u2019t call people about their past due bills, and has many ways to help people who\u2019ve fallen behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you have difficulty paying the bills,\u201d Chan said. \u201cPlease contact us. We have so many good assistance programs. We\u2019re happy to work with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number for customer service is (800) 743-5000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the roundtable guests asked about whether to trust third-party contractors who may claim to be PG&E partners, for instance, doing solar panel installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t be cowed, \u201cCall us if you feel uncomfortable. If they\u2019re legit, they will understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of uniqueness to these scams,\u201d Foley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told a story of how a convenience store employee saved someone from a $2,000 loss by overhearing the customer taking instructions over the phone about how to buy a gift card to send. \u201cSo the message is getting out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Published without changes from Ethic Media Services<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mark Hedin If you get an email or phone call from PG&E, the power company says, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,24],"tags":[66,82],"class_list":["post-5624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-outreach","category-regular-column","tag-african-american","tag-scams"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5625,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624\/revisions\/5625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}