A reader wrote to inform the Town Crier about being contacted by a purported Southern California Edison representative who demanded immediate payment for allegedly past-due electricity bills.

SCE Media Contact Susan Cox noted more than 700 SCE customers had been scammed at a total loss of nearly half-a-million dollars. “Since January 2014, more than 16,000 SCE customers have gotten telephone calls from impostors posing as SCE representatives,” said Cox. Average scammer demands for immediate payment ranged from $1,500 to $2,000. In the last quarter of 2015, Cox reported that 5,500 SCE customers had received and reported scam calls. “Customer awareness and education are the best defense against utility phone scams,” said Cox.

She explained how the scam works. “Phone imposters, claiming to be with SCE, call customers and fraudulently threaten to disconnect their electrical service unless immediate payment is made on a supposedly past-due bill,” said Cox. “The caller demands payment immediately and tells the unsuspecting customer to buy a prepaid debit card and load a specific amount of money on it and call the impostor back, providing the serial number on the back of the card.” The red flag, according to Cox, is the manner of payment — the prepaid debt card. “Once you give out the serial number on the prepaid card, the cash is untraceable and gone for good.

“Here’s what we want our customers to know: Southern California Edison never calls customers on the telephone and demands immediate payment with the threat of service disconnection; SCE does not accept prepaid cash cards for bill payments; and we do not have a disconnection department.”

Claremont Police Department Detective Hector Tamayo, working with SCE on the scam investigations, said, “Most people should be able to catch on when the caller is asking you to send a payment through a prepaid card.”

Cox suggested any SCE customer who suspects a fraudulent call should ask for the caller’s name as well as their department and business phone number. “End the call and report the incident immediately to local police or SCE at 800-655-4555 for residential customers or 800-990-7788 for business customers,” said Cox. “And never use the callback number provided by the caller.”

Cox noted more tips or clues to identify scammers:

• “SCE employees never ask for or collect money out in the field;

• SCE does not conduct credit transactions on weekends or holidays;

• SCE does not own or operate vehicles with Service Disconnection Department  signage;

• SCE employees always have their SCE ID badge displayed on their person;

• Be suspicious of anyone who arrives at your house without an appointment  asking to check an appliance, wiring or suggesting there may be some other electrical problem inside or outside your residence;

• Don’t fall for the 15- to 30-minute rush drill to extract payment. Take your time and verify your bill by calling the SCE phone number listed on your bill.”

Cox also recommended shredding utility bills before disposing in trash. “Scammers can get your account number, balance and other key information from bills not properly discarded,” she said.

For more accounts of SCE scams, visit http://insideedison.com/stories/phone-impostors-scam-utility-customers.

In Idyllwild, recent reports of thieves at the transfer station stealing paper, looking for personal identity information, stress the importance of shredding all paper with possible personal identity information before disposing in public trash receptacles. Sgt. Robert Duckett, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Hemet Station, said he checked with all patrol shifts and noted there have been no reports to the station of this activity. Nevertheless, Duckett requested extra patrol shifts last week to see if something had gone unreported. “No activity was found,” said Duckett.

Another telephone scam, important year-round but especially at tax time, involves outbound calls purportedly from the IRS demanding payment or indicating that a case has been filed against the call recipient. As with SCE, that is not something the IRS does. For more information visit www.irs.gov/uac/IRS-Urges-Public-to-Stay-Alert-for-Scam-Phone-Calls.