ARIZONA, USA — Thursday afternoon Tracy Clifford got a call from Salt River Project customer service on her caller ID. The person on the other end of the line told her she was behind on her SRP bill.
"He said that they were going to send a technician out within an hour to turn off my power unless I paid them immediately," Clifford said.
SRP said more than 150 customers have reported receiving calls like this on Monday and Tuesday this week.
"I instantly thought A: This is a mistake," Clifford said. "But also, I have two babies and if the power gets shut off, it's over 110 degrees out – everyone's going to be roasting."
Clifford said she texted her husband, who was watching their kids at home and even pulled up her bank records to check recent payments and found they had gone through.
"The gentleman on the phone asked me, 'do I have an email confirming the payment? Do I have a confirmation number confirming the payment?' Which I did not," Clifford said.
It came down to two options. Clifford said the man said she could go to an SRP location and pay or pay by Zelle.
Clifford said the man also said she'd get a refund if an investigation found that her bill was current.
"I had a lot of things going on, kind of distracted out and about," Clifford said. "So I just thought, 'Well, surely if I pay the bill, we'll kind of avert having the technician come and then we'll keep the power on and then they'll sort it out.'"
In total, Clifford said she paid $398.77 to the scammers via Zelle. When Clifford got home, she asked her husband to call SRP directly.
"First thing I asked him was, 'Do we owe money? Can you look up her account?' So I give him the information, and he looked it up and he's like, 'You guys are totally up to date on your bill. You owe nothing.'"
While the Cliffords have reported the issue to their bank and Zelle, they will likely not get the money back.
"It's not about the money," Clifford said. "It's about, you know, just the violation and how somebody could do this and how they can live with themselves."
Tim Herchold, a customer service analyst with SRP told 12News these kinds of calls have gone on for a while.
"When the temperatures get hot like this, scammers prey on that fear of being without electricity or air conditioning during the summer," Herchold said.
Both residential and business customers can be targeted, Herchold said, which is why he warns that SRP doesn't take payments through Zelle, Bitcoin, or other similar means.
The scammers use a sense of urgency, but Herchold said, SRP won't make that kind of urgent calls.
"We'll call you maybe to tell you about your account status, but we're not going to demand immediate payment or threaten disconnection," Herchold said. "We're always willing to work with you. Give us a call."
SRP does have information available on these scams, and Herchold said customers should give the utility a call if they get a call like this as SRP does keep track of scammer's activities and work to warn other customers.
Clifford and her husband want others to be aware of how this can happen.
"They do prey on people's fear and love for their families," Clifford said.
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