Monday afternoon, multiple customers of Waterloo North Hydro contacted the utility to inquire about some unusual phone calls they’d received earlier in the day.
“Our customers are receiving calls that their account is in arrears or their bills haven’t been paid,” explains Waterloo North Hydro spokesperson Jeff Quint.
“They’re asked to provide payment information instantly, via credit card.”
In some cases, the customers were even threatened with disconnection if they didn’t immediately provide credit card information.
One hitch: The calls aren’t coming from Waterloo North Hydro.
“When we do call and talk with customers, we never ask for payment information over the phone,” Quint says.
The calls appear to be the work of phone scammers, hoping to trick the person on the other end of the line into giving up their credit card information.
A call-back number provided in the calls does contain a message purporting to be from the utility – but that, too, isn’t real.
It appears the calls are targeting the utility’s small business customers rather than residential households.
Ric Borksi, CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Midwestern and Central Ontario, says the “ery dangerous” calls are likely to trick at least some of their recipients.
“These are folks that are obviously going to be very interested in not losing their service,” he says.
Although the motivation of the callers isn’t known for certain, Waterloo Regional Police spokesperson Olaf Heinzel says the region is experiencing an increase in cases of scams leading to identity theft.
“We’re finding an increase in the number of cases where scammers are using that personal information … for their own purposes,” he says.
If Waterloo North Hydro is chasing a customer for repayment, Quint says, the utility will provide multiple automated calls, as well as paper notices.
Should the matter escalate to the point where disconnection is ordered, a final warning will be hand-delivered.
Anyone who receives a similar phone call and suspects it may be a scam should take down as much information as they can, give out no information of their own and contact authorities, Quint says.
