At least one Lakewood resident fell for a scam perpetrated by scam artist claiming to be from a JCP&L employee.
The resident reported he received a call from someone who had his account information, and threatened him they would be shutting off his electric in 30 minutes if he failed to pay them – and he complied.
Another resident told TLS he received a similar call, but instead hung up and called the company, confirming it was a scam.
Residents are urged to call the number on their electric bill to report any suspicious calls.
How hard is it to say, give me your number and I’ll call back after I’ve talked to JCP&L? It’s just common sense.
What is the big deal if they shut you off. You call and they put it back on. People are so scared.
When you’re in the moment and your emotions are involved it’s not so easy to just be like “yeah this is probably a scam”. Unfortunately, Some of these places do a good job at presenting themselves as legit. I think of myself as someone who would never fall for any of this none sense and just 2 weeks ago, I almost did. It’s easy to say that its easy until it’s not.
Many Lakewood residents have fallen prey to the anti-VAX scam artist as well!
I got this call on Friday also. The number they called from came up as first energy phone number!! (spoof #) But the scammer said to call him back only on a different number. The electric co advised us to file a police report.
Many more fell prey to the anti-vaxer
Scammers
Companies can’t call to say they will shut off due to non payment they must send a letter with a shutoff date
Before you judge, we don’t know anything about the resident. I know 2 elderly family members – one (90’s) fell for a scam, while the other (70’s) refused.
My own mother called me in a panic that she turned on her computer and there was a pop up saying “(cable company) detects a virus, please call (number) to remove it.” Thankfully she called me instead of them.
@silly
Sounds like you aren’t aware of the shut off process.
They don’t shut you off remotely. They come to your house and remove your meter.
It can take up to 12 hours for them to come back and put your meter back in.
We have to stop blaming the victim. It’s true that we can empower ourselves and learn some information so as not to fall prey to some theives. But let’s keep the record straght these scammers are very smart and they trap enough people that it’s worth it for them to continue. Let’s stop blaming the victim and instead blame the ones who are really to blame while we learn how to empower ourselves and others against them
Thank you TLS for publicizing this story. The more people are aware of this the less people will fall for it.