JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — You may have received a phone call or email from JEA in recent days alerting you to a scam.
The utility has taken the extraordinary step to call customers following an increase in calls from what it calls sophisticated actors who pose as the utility company, threatening to disconnect your service if payment isn’t made using a prepaid card.
“On Friday alone, more than 95 of our customers called us to let us know that they were receiving calls”, said JEA Spokesperson Gerri Boyce. “About six customers who paid a total of $12,500 in total”, Boyce said.
JEA says the scammers are very sophisticated. The number shows up on caller ID as JEA, and if you call the number back it sounds like JEA’s call center.
“We have in fact called them back pretending to be JEA customers who have been called, and they are very convincing”, said Boyce.
JEA is asking any customer who receives a suspicious call to record the phone number and any pertinent information, then call JEA at 665-6000 to report it.
The utility company said it is able to shut down the numbers the scammers are calling from or asking customers to call.
Action News Jax reporter Varisa Lall Dass interviewed local customers about this scam.
Customer Judy Himes said she understands why some people would fall for the scam.
Himes said, “They’ll just go ahead and do it because you’re JEA and I don’t want my lights off.”
Action News Jax also reached out to JEA, and their spokeswoman Gerri Boyce said another scam that is going around involves individuals posing as JEA employees and going to customer’s doors.
She says you can call the company and run an individual’s badge to learn if they are really an employee with the utility company.
Cox Media Group
