SCAM ALERT PER CMP

Central Maine Power (CMP) has been made aware of imposters approaching residential and commercial buildings claiming to be from CMP. Below is a link to a WGME news story aired on 1/22 as well as a Handful of reminders and warnings to be aware of. If you have hear of any of this happening in your area, please let us know.

WGME News Story

As a reminder, CMP will never:

• Send an employee inside your personal residence to use a computer or other device.
• Have an employee take a photo of your electric bill.
• Send an employee to your home to offer a discount, offer a cost-savings program or encourage you to sign up for a service.
• Ask customers to make a payment with a pre-paid debit card or other non-refundable methods.

Customers should also be aware of some of the known scammer tactics:

• Fraudulent phone numbers: Caller ID may show the call is coming from the utility. In some cases, the perpetrators pretend to have specific knowledge about the customers they're calling and may even provide a callback number with a recorded greeting similar to CMP's company's customer service line.
• Fraudulent emails and texts: Scammers are using digital correspondence to portray themselves as the utility.
• Door-to-door imposters: Scammers are posing as CMP employees and asking about utility bills.

Types of scams that customers should look out for include:

• Disconnection threat: Someone posing as a utility representative, aggressively telling a customer their account is past due and a crew is on the way to shut off service unless an immediate payment is made-typically using a prepaid debit card or another non-refundable form of payment.
• Meter payment: The caller or in-person scammer instructs the customer to pay with cash or a prepaid debit card to cover the costs of a new meter or meter upgrade.
• Information request: The caller insists that a recent payment encountered a system glitch and was not completed, or that the company had not received the payment at all. The perpetrator then asks the customer to make a false payment using a prepaid debit card or by providing personal bank account information.

Please pass alone to anyone you think should know within your organization.