Pandemic Scams with Marissa Travaline

Well, honestly, Larry, what we're seeing is just more customers who are currently in arrears. And the reason this is so timely is there are folks who are now behind on their utility bills for the first time, perhaps. They may have never fallen behind before, and they don't know what to expect. They don't know what kind of options they have available to them, and scammers are really taking advantage of that. These folks are anxious, and with that anxiety, scammers are able to create a sense of urgency among a customer to potentially take an action without really thinking it through.

All of the above, unfortunately. Scammers use a number of different tactics to get your attention, to potentially get your account information. They are using phone calls, predominantly phone calls, to reach out to customers and say, 'You have to make a payment of X amount right now or your service will be cut off.' Often that will prompt the customer to follow instructions to go purchase gift cards or some type of payment card, perhaps to use an app that they're not familiar with or wouldn't normally pay their bills with. Those kind of things should create an alarm for a customer.

That's a great question. I think it depends, honestly. It depends what kind of scam you may fall victim to, unfortunately. So at a minimum, they are receiving the payment that you're sending. What we suggest customers do always is, if you're not comfortable with a call or an outreach that you receive, hang up the phone. Indicate to the person on the other end that you'd like to contact your utility directly. We are currently not shutting customers off at all because of the moratorium in the state of New Jersey. If someone reaches out to a residential customer and threatens immediate shut-off, you can be certain that that's not going to happen. Again, our governor and our New Jersey Board of Public Utilities have worked together with utilities to extend that moratorium or grace period on shutoffs to give customers more time to pay. The first thing you want to do is reach out to your utility if you're concerned or if you don't believe that that call is a valid call from your utility. The other thing you can do is use services that are available, like My Account. Both South Jersey Gas and Elizabethtown Gas offer a My Account portal that helps you control your own customer information. You'll be familiar with what your account balances are, you'll be familiar with what you truly owe on a bill, so if someone's telling you otherwise, that's how you can validate your information. You also have the ability to make safe, secure online payments there. You can sign up for things like paperless billing so that you don't have to have mail in your mailbox that has your account information on it, if that's more comfortable for a customer.

We do, Larry. Unfortunately, there were customers both in Gloucester and Cumberland counties who fell victim to these scams. The dollar amounts they lost were unfortunately pretty significant. They numbered in the thousands of dollars. I mean, at that point, a customer should absolutely get the local law enforcement involved in order to pursue follow-up on the loss of those funds. But the utility will obviously work very quickly with the customer to secure any further information or prevent any additional outreach by anyone connected to that account, if needed.

Yeah, at that point it is. Again, we would certainly be willing to work with any customer to try to address a very reasonable payment arrangement or to provide them any information that's needed to support their pursuit of the person that scammed them or the entity that scammed them.

We don't directly get involved. To the extent that law enforcement may need our assistance, we obviously will always provide it. Our biggest role that we see for South Jersey Gas or for Elizabethtown Gas and even other utilities is the partnership on helping to communicate around scams, encouraging customers: if something doesn't feel right, it may not be, and you have the right to say, 'I'm going to end this phone call' or 'I'm going to end this chat' or 'I'm going to delete this email and I'm going to go to my utility directly and contact them myself so that I know I'm talking to someone who truly represents my local utility.'

I do not, no. I don't have any further information about the scams. They generally don't follow up back directly with us.

Absolutely.