Victim Location 48761
Type of a scam Utility
received a call this morning. I kid you not, the caller ID said Consumers Energy. Phone number was 800-477-5050. Guy on the phone said our business bill was past due and our service would be disconnected in 30 minutes if I didn’t resolve it (very fishy that it was only 30 minutes). I asked him which account because there were 3 account numbers at the business. He told me to verify the phone number on the account. When I gave him the phone number he told me the address of the account. Now I really started to think this was Consumers. He put me on a brief hold so he could contact the dispatcher to stop him from shutting off the service. I asked the guy why we didn’t receive a past due notice or shut off notice. He said notices were mailed and asked if I had received them. I told him I hadn’t received a past due NOR a shut off notice. I told "Carlos" I needed to check our records and would call him write back. He told me to call him at 1-800-573-1870 ext 214
I checked our records, everything showed as paid, called Carlos back at extension 214. Carlos answered. Now I was mad and really suspecting a scam. I told him the amounts and dates that the money was taken from our account to pay our apparent "past due" debts. He transferred me to "Adam" in the billing department because Adam could look into things further than Carlos. When Adam got on the phone, I asked where his office was located. He said Boyne City. I asked him where was his favorite place to eat lunch in Boyne City–Adam said Paccilio’s–a little Italian cafe. I used to live near Boyne City and would eat in Boyne City quite frequently and never knew of a Paccilios. Googled it. Nothing came up.
I told Adam this sounded like a scam. He stopped me and said "ma’am, you’ve mentioned fraud in our conversation. Because you said the word scam, I need to refer you to the phone number on your consumers bill. If you don’t think this is consumers energy, please call the number on your bill and they can remedy the situation directly." So now I’m second guessing myself thinking it might NOT be a scam. I hung up, called the real Consumers phone number on my bill. Consumers confirmed we are paid in full and that this scam is running rampant. The scammers are targeting businesses first because they can get a lot more money.