National Consumer Protection Week: PG&E Partners with the FTC to Help Customers Recognize and Avoid Utility Scams

PG&E Customers Lost Nearly $650,000 to Scammers During 2024

OAKLAND, Calif., March 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- During 2024, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) customers lost nearly $650,000 to utility scammers. To help combat this alarming trend, PG&E is joining the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to help customers recognize and avoid potential scams during National Consumer Protection Week from March 2-8, 2025.

Scams targeting utility customers continue at an alarming rate. In fact, during 2024, PG&E received over 26,000 reports from customers who were targeted by scammers impersonating the company, and customers lost $646,000 in fraudulent payments. Unfortunately, this number is likely just the tip of the iceberg for overall scam attempts, as many go unreported. The number of reports is continuing at a high level thus far in 2025, as PG&E received over 1,700 reports of attempted scams in January alone, with customers paying scammers nearly $22,000 during the month.

"Scammers will attempt to create a sense of urgency by threatening immediate disconnection of your utility services if you don't make immediate payment. Remember, PG&E will never ask you for financial information over the phone, nor will we ask for payment via pre-paid debit cards or money transfer services like Zelle. If you receive a call like this, hang up, and then either log onto PGE.com to confirm your account details, or you can call our customer service number," said Ron Rose, lead customer scam investigator for PG&E.

Scammers are opportunistic and look for times when customers may be distracted or stressed and are constantly contacting utility customers asking for payment to avoid immediate service disconnection. As a reminder, PG&E will never call for the first time within one hour of a service disconnection, nor will we ask customers to make payments with a pre-paid debit card, gift card, any form of cryptocurrency, or third-party digital payment mobile applications like Zelle or Venmo.

Small and medium-sized businesses are also a target, and scammers will focus their efforts during busy business hours, preying on business owners' sense of urgency to keep the doors open and the lights on. In fact, PG&E received over 1,200 reports of scam attempts targeting these customers during 2024.

Signs of a potential scam:

• Threat to disconnect: Scammers may aggressively demand immediate payment for an alleged past due bill.
• Request for immediate payment: Scammers may instruct the customer to purchase a prepaid card then call them back supposedly to make a bill payment.
• Request for prepaid card: When the customer calls back, the caller asks the customer for the prepaid card's number, which grants the scammer instant access to the card's funds.
• Refund or rebate offers: Scammers may say that your utility company overbilled you and owes you a refund, or that you are entitled to a rebate.

How customers can protect themselves

Customers should never purchase a prepaid card to avoid service disconnection or shutoff. PG&E does not specify how customers should make a bill payment and offers a variety of ways to pay a bill, including accepting payments online, by phone, automatic bank draft, mail or in person.

If a scammer threatens immediate disconnection or shutoff of service without prior notification, customers should hang up the phone, delete the email, or shut the door. Customers with delinquent accounts receive an advance disconnection notification, typically by mail and included with their regular monthly bill.

Signing up for an online account at pge.com is another safeguard. Not only can customers log in to check their balance and payment history, they can sign up for recurring payments, paperless billing and helpful alerts.

Scammers Impersonating Trusted Phone Numbers and Websites: Scammers are now able to create authentic-looking 800 numbers which appear on your phone display. The numbers don't lead back to PG&E if called back, however, so if you have doubts, hang up and call PG&E at 1-833-500-SCAM. If customers ever feel that they are in physical danger, they should call 911.

A recent trend is that scammers are creating fake utility bill-pay websites that appear in internet search results. For online payments, customers should log into pge.com, and either log into your account or create one to pay your bill.

Customers who suspect that they have been victims of fraud, or who feel threatened during contact with one of these scammers, should contact local law enforcement. The Federal Trade Commission's website is also a good source of information about how to protect personal information.

For more information about scams, visit pge.com/scams or consumer.ftc.org.    

About PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news.

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SOURCE Pacific Gas and Electric Company