Press release
ComEd Offers Families and Businesses Tips to Avoid COVID-19 Related Energy Scams
Scammers target vulnerable customers CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- As the COVID-19 pandemic takes a financial toll on families and businesses across northern
About this update from Exelon Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"\nScammers target vulnerable customers \n\n CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nAs the COVID-19 pandemic takes a financial toll on families and businesses across northern Illinois, scammers are increasing their efforts to take advantage of vulnerable customers who may be struggling to pay their bills.\n\nEven before the pandemic, ComEd had experienced a 60-percent increase in reports of scams and attempted scams into its call center since 2017. More recently, imposters posing as ComEd employees are approaching individuals and businesses to attempt to steal their money, as well as personal and business information.\n\n“During the pandemic, ComEd has received reports of scammers, posing as utility representatives, contacting customers who may be experiencing difficulty paying their bills,” said Nichole Owens, ComEd vice president of customer channels. “These imposters prey on these customers’ financial situation by falsely threatening to shut off service to obtain money or a customer’s personal, business or financial information.”\n\nOne tactic scammers use with more frequency is “spoofing” ComEd’s name and phone number. Spoofing uses technology to change the caller’s identification information so that ComEd’s name and phone number appear in the customer’s caller ID display. Another tactic involves sending emails with slight modifications to the ComEd name to make it appear it is coming from the energy company. Scammers may even demand that an individual make a direct payment with a prepaid cash card or instruct a business to deposit a payment in an alternate account.\n\nTips to help homeowners identify scams\n\nComEd will never visit or call a customer’s home or business to:\n\n\nAsk for immediate payment with a prepaid cash card or cryptocurrency such as bitcoin.\n\n\nAsk for their ComEd account number or other personal information, such as a driver’s license number, Social Security number, tax identification number or bank information.\n\n\nTips to help businesses to identify email scams\n\n\nCarefully review email messages originating from outside your business network.\n\n\nCheck the person’s name and business in the email and make sure it matches the name and business in the email address. For example, some imposters will use zeros in place of the letter O or switch letters in the business name so that “corp” appears as “crop.”\n\n\...