Scammers are always ready to take advantage of your misfortune.
At a time when customers face disconnection for failure to pay their utility bills, Public Service Electric & Gas is warning customers about utility scams that threaten immediate service cuts unless people pay up right away.
“Scammers continue to adapt and develop increasingly sophisticated tactics to take advantage of our customers,” said Jane Bergen, PSE&G’s director of billing, in a statement.
Hundreds of thousands of New Jersey customers who are behind on their utility bills face the prospect of having their natural gas or electric service shut off after March 15, the day the winter moratorium on service cutoffs ends.
Collectively, residential customers owed more than $661.1 million in electric and natural gas charges as of January, according to state figures. Utilities are urging customers to contact them to make payment arrangements or sign up programs to help them pay.
Utilities have already sent out disconnection notices and will restart collection activities after March 15.
But throughout the pandemic, scammers have increased calls, texts and emails, in-person tactics, PSE&G said. And con artists continued to call utility customers and demanded immediate payment to avoid service disconnection.
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