Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities want to warn customers that there is a phone scam that uses a recording of the utilities’ automated phone system.
LG&E and KU say that they will never call customers requesting phone payments.
They say that some callers threaten to disconnect a person’s electric or natural gas service if they do not pay a bill by credit or prepaid card immediately over the phone.
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
LG&E and KU released this statement offering safe advice to their residential and business customers:
- Secure your personal information: LG&E and KU will never call and ask for credit or debit card numbers or other personal information. Nor do the utilities ask their customers to go to a specific retail outlet to purchase pre-paid cards to make a utility bill payment.
- Always remember you have bill payment options: LG&E and KU offer customers a variety of official payment options. A complete list can be found here.
- First check with LG&E and KU: Customers who receive a suspicious phone call, voicemail, email or letter should contact LG&E and KU directly using the company’s official contact channels. The utilities will always verify official communications. LG&E customers should call
502-589-1444 (outside Louisville at 1-800-331-7370 FREE); KU customers should call 1-800-981-0600 FREE.
- Elect to receive billing notifications through MyAccount: Customers can choose how and when they would like to receive timely reminders about their monthly bills by signing up for billing notifications.
They also want to say that while there are many reasons they may visit a customer’s home or business, they will be there to read the meter, respond to a report of an outage or inspect equipment, they will never be there to collect payment for a monthly bill.
They encourage customers to always obtain positive identification in the event someone appears at their door stating they are there for LG&E or KU.
All of their employees and contractors will carry an ID badge.
An employee ID card always has the employee’s name and color photograph on the front as well.
If a customer is ever in doubt, they should call the official contact numbers for verification.
