I mean, I know it was, I’m just not quite sure what was going on.
I got a call today, caller ID (at the phone I grabbed) just listed a name. I picked it up and said [business name]. The person identified himself with his name (well, a name, George) and as an employee of We-Energies (Gas & Electric in Milwaukee). He told me that because my account was so past due that it was scheduled for a disconnect today and he wanted to give me a heads up.
Now, I pay the bills so I know it isn’t past due. I told him I needed to switch phones and go to my office. On the way I grabbed my We-Energies bills and pulled up the caller ID on my phone and googled it. It was a TX area code and google revealed a small handful of other people calling it a scam. I picked up the phone and said “Okay, so I have several accounts with you (I do), which account are you calling about?” he replied that he was just a technician and can’t give out that information because it’s private, he only had the meter number. I asked him for the meter number and not only did it not match what my bill said, but it wasn’t in the same format. I told that the number he gave me wasn’t one of my meters and he said 'well, they do get swapped out and it might not be reflected on your bill"
At this point, trying to coax the actual scam out of him I said “What would you like me to do?”. This is where I got confused, he said “Nothing, I just wanted to let you know, I’m just a technician, you need to contact them to take care of it”.
I did call them (We-Energies) they said my account was in good standing and transferred me to their fraud dept who took down my information as well as the caller ID info.
My guess is that he realized I was ‘on to him’ when I asked him for my account number, told him that I know my account is current and called him out on having the wrong meter number. ISTM, he should have or would have, at that point said he made some kind of mistake (wrong account, wrong number, something), but he told me I should call the company. It should be noted that at the beginning of the conversation I specifically asked “Are you a we-energies employee or a contractor because caller ID says you’re calling with an out of state cell phone?” and he said he was an employee*.
Furthermore, my guess is that the scam was hoping for people to not ask probing questions and just say ‘what can I do so I don’t get disconnected?’ and he would say “well, the past due amount is $345.99, if you give me a credit card over the phone…” or “If you have it ready in cash I can pick it up and let them know you took care of it”. One of the things that struck me as odd is that he told me to call We-energies. Maybe it was a ‘criminals are dumb’/panic move on his part, but if I called in, they would have said everything is fine and possible told me it was a scam and asked for information. Like I said, he would have been better off finding a more elegant way to back out of it. Oh, and maybe blocking his caller ID.
Honestly, I was hoping he was local and offer to pick up cash. I would have ‘agreed’ and had the police waiting for him (I know the local cops and they would have played ball and brought an unmarked unit).
So, did he back out because he figured I was on to him, or was there a scam in there that I missed?
FTR, the utility company said there’s probably not a whole lot they can do, but they do follow up on these things and will contact ‘local authorities’.
*this is a trick I learned from the phone scam days. People would identify themselves as working for AT&T and tell me they could lower my bill. When I asked them if they actually worked for AT&T, half of them would say that they’re just a reseller of AT&T services (and I’d hangup) the other half would maintain the lie. At some point they’d ask how many lines I have and I’d say “you work for AT&T, you tell me”, funny, they never knew.