Over the past two days, Chandler Police have investigated two cases involving these scams. We would like to remind utility customers to always verify with your service provider any billing questions. Never provide information over the phone to an unknown caller and never make payments over the phone or internet without first verifying the source and ensuring it is in fact your legitimate service provider.
To avoid becoming a victim of utility bill scams, SRP urges customers to:
§ Never give any credit or debit card numbers or other personal information to any caller or visitor without knowing their true identity.
§ When any concern arises, immediately contact the account manager listed on the top portion of the SRP bill statement or the SRP Business Contact Center at (602) 236-8833.
§ Residential customers can call (602) 236-8888 for accurate information about their electric account, program information or to confirm SRP employee identification.
§ Contact the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 and local law enforcement.
A reminder to all business and residential customers:
SRP will send out a delinquent reminder bill if the account becomes eligible for disconnection.
SRP recommends signing up for MyAccount to view and manage accounts at
http://www.srpnet.com“>www.srpnet.com.
| Over the past six months, SRP business customers such as Jamil Jabbar, who owns the Quick Corner Market & La Mexicana Super Carniceria in Phoenix, have been the target of phone scams. SRP customer service representatives have received numerous phone calls from concerned customers, primarily those who operate restaurants, convenience stores or markets. |
| The pattern is similar in most cases. The scam artists identify themselves as an SRP employee and threaten to disconnect power unless the business customer pays the bill within 30 minutes. Jabbar, as well as others, were then instructed to “go to Walgreens and buy a prepaid card, load it with money and call back with the card number” so funds could be withdrawn immediately. In some cases SRP customers have gone to purchase the prepaid card out of fear, but then called SRP directly to confirm and avoided being scammed. Jabbar said he knew it was a scam because he had paid the utility bill, but is concerned other small business owners may not be as fortunate. The fraudulent calls are being made to both English- and Spanish-speaking customers. SRP has reported the activity to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
To avoid becoming a victim of these scams, SRP urges customers to:
A reminder to all business and residential customers:
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