Cold Weather Means More PEPCO Phone Scams

As the weather gets colder, phone scammers are using it to their advantage. According to Montgomery County Consumer Protection, we should “expect an uptick in PEPCO phone scams threatening to shut off [our] power.”

The Office of Consumer Protection (OCP) has been alerted of energy scams like these. On OCP’s website, they say that county residents have reported suspicious calls from callers who claim to work from PEPCO; these callers warn people that their power will be shut off because of unpaid bills.

At the end of the call, the caller leaves a phone number for the person to call back, and if you call the number back it goes to a recording that “sounds very like what a PEPCO caller would hear if they were actually calling PEPCO.”

OCP advises county residents who receive a call like this to “hang up and call PEPCO directly at the number that appears on your monthly bill to see if the call was legitimate.”

With the cold weather, expect an uptick in the PEPCO phone scams threatening to shut off your power. Read more about this and other Energy Scams here:https://t.co/dp5p8aawX4

— Montgomery County Office of Consumer Protection (@ConsumerWise) January 31, 2019

About Deirdre Byrne

Deirdre Byrne is a social media coordinator for Montgomery Community Media. She can be reached at dbyrne@mymcmedia.org or on twitter at @DeirdreByrneMCM.

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