Electricity Meter Scam Warning
Published / Last Updated on 01/04/2022
A director of this firm, Joanne Roberts-Clark this week received a telephone call allegedly from the firm’s electricity.
The heavily accented call, which is not unusual given that so many large organisations have their call centres based overseas, appeared genuine.
The caller identified themselves as our electricity asked what our meter number was because the address they had did not match to the meter number they had. Surprising, given that we have owned that particular office for five years and all has worked fine in that time.
The caller gave our business full name and address and a meter number (not ours) but in a correct and similar format and confirmed again they were just seeking to clarify the meter number.
As is standard for all incoming calls, whether in connection with our own business or in connection with a client’s pensions and investments, we have standard security questions and checks.
Joanne asked the caller to answer additional security questions as follows:
As you are calling from abroad and have given a wrong meter number, will cannot verify who you are so will not offer any information unless we can verify you. The caller tried again saying that she only needed to confirm the meter number to save us future errors in billing. Jo still said no and was put through to the caller’s manager.
She repeated the message to the manager and asked the manager to confirm details that only our real supplier would know:
- Our customer account number (not the meter number)
- Date of last bill
- How much was the last bill?
The manager then started shouting saying he was just trying to protect us, just wanted the meter number and subsequently put the telephone down. Joanne then called our electricity supplier on a known number and the call handler confirmed they had not made a call and it was a scam that they are starting to see regularly.
The legitimate call handler advised that fraudsters want your meter number because if they have your name, address and correct meter number, they can scam you or switch you to another service. In short, they transfer you to a higher cost ‘rip off’ energy supplier and get paid commissions.
In these difficult times of higher energy prices, fraudsters are using this period of energy uncertainty as a way to prey on people.
