SCE Names Top-10 Cities for Reporting Phone Scams, Urges Vigilance During Holiday Season

ROSEMEAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Southern California Edison is sharing a list of the top-10 cities in its service area for customer-reported utility bill phone scams. Residents in these cities and others may experience an increase in scam attempts during the upcoming holiday season. The warning comes during Utility Scam Awareness Week, Nov. 16-20, a campaign by Utilities United Against Scams to raise awareness about the threat posed by scams.

SCE customers report being victimized for nearly $300,000 so far this year by utility bill phone scams. While these and similar scams have existed for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic created widespread opportunities for con artists posing as utility representatives to target unsuspecting customers observing stay-at-home precautions. These attempts to steal money, personal information or both have expanded to include the growing use of mobile payment applications.

SCE’s top-10 cities for reporting utility phone scams this year are:

• Fontana
• Hemet
• Huntington Beach
• Irvine
• Long Beach
• Moreno Valley
• Ontario
• San Bernardino
• Santa Ana
• Whittier

“Our customers are doing a great job of reporting attempted scams to us, so our company can take steps to help shut down the phone lines these fraudsters use,” says Jill Anderson, SCE’s senior vice president of Customer Service.

She added, “When the COVID-19 crisis erupted, SCE quickly suspended service disconnections for nonpayment and waived late fees by request for residential and small business customers, which will continue at least until April 2021. We also want our customers to know that any threat of immediate service disconnection without payment by someone claiming to be from SCE should be recognized as a scam attempt.”

Reports from customers to SCE indicate utility bill scams tend to target the elderly, English learners — or both — and smaller businesses such as hair salons and auto mechanics, many of which have been struggling since the pandemic started.

To avoid becoming a victim of a utility bill scam, customers should know that:

• SCE does not have a “disconnection department.”
• SCE will never demand an immediate payment with the threat of disconnection.
• SCE does not accept prepaid cash cards or bitcoins for bill payments.
• SCE will never ask for your credit card or account information over the phone.
• SCE employees will not demand to collect, or accept, payment in the field.

Customers who believe they are being or have been targeted by a utility bill scam should confirm their account balance or payment status by calling SCE’s customer service center at 1-800-655-4555. If possible, save information such as callback phone numbers or payment instructions and report the attempt by calling SCE’s customer service center, emailing SCE at [e-mail] or by completing SCE’s online fraud form.

To learn more about the suspicious behaviors and tactics of utility bill phone scammers, please visit sce.com/scamalert.

About Southern California Edison

An Edison International (NYSE: EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of approximately 15 million via 5 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.