Victim Location 23221
Type of a scam Utility
Someone posing as "Dominion Energy" left the following message on my voice mail at 7 p.m. Monday night, June 15, 2020:
"Good, good day. Welcome to Dominion Energy, This is an automated call to inform you that your account reflects a disconnection order taking place today due to non-payment history. Press 2 to be transferred to our billing department or please contact us at 866-466-0950 to avoid the disconnection. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. Thank your for choosing Dominion Energy."
When I called "2," I was disconnected.
When I called 866-466-0950, I got a live person who said I must pay $500 immediately or my service would be disconnected tonight. He "explained" they had a meter that showed I was delinquent.
I said "That sounds fishy. Dominion Power would never ask me to pay that tonight."
The person hung up and I got dial tone.
Victim Location 23112
Type of a scam Utility
We received a phone call from 8084-306-7434 stating Dominion Energy would turn our power off in 30 minutes if we did not pay our bill. Husband told person we made payment and caller hung up!
Victim Location 23223
Type of a scam Debt Collections
Received call and voicemail from (800) 974-7405 stating it was the energy company and this is my last chance to pay or my services will be disconnected. I knew the call was fraudulent because they didn’t identify the name of the company, I am not behind on my bill, and also Dominion is not disconnecting services at this time due to the pandemic.
Victim Location 23606
Type of a scam Utility
This number called. It was an automated message saying our Dominion Power account is past-due and service will be cut off in 30 minutes if we don’t call the number back and make full payment.
Victim Location 23236
Type of a scam Utility
The Scammer first called my husband, which is very rare because my husband doesn’t have any utility account under he’s name and the scammer left a message saying that the service has a disconnection order for nonpayment. We ignore it. The next day I get the same phone call with an automated message and a phone number, so I called this individual answers and knows my name and my address with out me telling him and tells me that I owe $245 dollars that needs to be paid in full otherwise my power will be disconnected. Of course I knew from the beginning this was not the amount that I owe. So I told him no worries I will make a payment online thank you, he said if you make it online it takes 24hrs and your account can be disconnected, I said ok let it be! and I hang up.
Victim Location 23139
Type of a scam Utility
I received a voicemail from Dominion Energy saying our account was past due and they would be cutting off our power today. I knew we were not past due and called them back. After speaking with them I knew it was a scam. They cursed at me and hung up.
Victim Location 23060
Type of a scam Phishing
My phone rang only once, but they left a msg. The msg said that my power would be cut off by noon (it was 10:00) do to lack of payment. Call 866-370-3749 and press 2 to be connected to the billing department. I immediately checked my bank account and I had just paid my account 2 weeks ago. I called Dominion anyway to make sure and I owed nothing. They filed a report so I didn’t actually use the call-back number they gave me.
Victim Location 23229
Type of a scam Utility
I received a voicemail after not answering a call that my caller ID designated as Potential Spam. The voicemail stated:
“Good day! Welcome to Dominion Energy – this is an automated call to inform you that your account reflects of disconnection order taking place today due to nonpayment history. Press two to be transferred to our billing department or please contact us at 866-370-3749 to avoid the disconnection. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you. Thank you for choosing Dominion Energy.” I knew this not to be the case and verified my last payment had, in fact, posted. Then, I googled the number the call came from and found it’s linked to a prepaid card scam in which the scammers claimed if a card was purchased, services would not be disconnected.
Victim Location 23111
Type of a scam Utility
The scammer called and told me that I had not paid my electric bill and I was going to be disconnected due to non payment.
Victim Location 23602
Type of a scam Utility
Caller left message that i needed to make immediate payment because my power is scheduled for disconnect today.
I checked my account on line and all required payments have been made and were accounted for. Dominion energy web site lists this scam.
Victim Location 23235
Type of a scam Utility
An automated call prpotredly from Dominion Energy saying payemtn was behind and service would be terminate today. Press 2 to be connected to billing department. They apologized for any inconvenience and thanked us for being dominon energy customers.
Victim Location 23233
Total money lost $211.90
Type of a scam Utility
Initially contacted via phone from 757# (3/27/2020) – “Good day welcome to dominion energy this is an automated call to inform you that your account reflects a disconnection order taking place today due to nonpayment history press two to be transferred to our billing department for please contact us if 757-516-4760 to avoid disconnection sorry for any inconvenience that this may call if you thank you for choosing _?_?_?_?_?_?_?_ energy…”
I should have checked my bill and contacted Dominion Energy directly at the customer service number. However, I knew that I was behind on my bill so I thought it was possible that my power would be disconnected. Spoke with a male claiming his name was "Mike Lopez" – he was very rational and seemed to be quite concerned for my situation. I asked if I could make a payment via my online banking. Mr Lopez said that the payment using that method may not go through in time to stop the disconnect order. This is another red flag I should have seen. He assured me that he would take care of me to make sure that my power was not disconnected. I asked if I could use my debit card to make a payment over the phone. He suggested Green Dot or Go Bank pre-paid cards. One of my bank accounts is with GoBank – this seemed a bit odd as well – but I was too deeply invested emotionally at this point to see that this was a scam…
Ended up making a payment of $100 on 3/27 and another on 3/30 – both were a stretch financially, but I wanted to keep my power on and this guy seemed like he was being helpful (in retrospect "too helpful"). "Mike Lopez" said that he would follow-up in 2 weeks. I received a text from "Mike" on 4/13, but wanted to check my balance with Dominion to see how much I owed before responding. My balance with Dominion Energy was still the original amount (via automated system, but it was after hours). Around 10AM on 4/14 I was able to speak with a representative from Dominion Energy who confirmed that this was in fact a scam.
Victim Location 23188
Type of a scam Utility
I received a voicemail saying, "Good day, welcome to Dominion Energy. This is an automated call to inform you that your account reflects a disconnection order taking place today due to nonpayment history. Press two to be transferred to our billing department, or please contact us at 866-513-1311 to avoid disconnection. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you. Thank you for choosing Dominion Energy." I checked that I was caught up on bill payment and then called the number given. (I should have looked up Dominion’s number! Silly me!) They said they had sent multiple letters starting four months ago informing me that they were switching from analog meters to digital meters, and I needed to make a down payment for the switch, which would be given back to me over a period of time using the new meter. Since I had not complied, they must disconnect. When I asked if I could pay a down payment now, they said yes, but not over the phone or online. They said I could do it at Food Lion (using a debit card) or Kroger (cash only). They asked me to make a "promise of payment" stating when I would have the payment completed, and asked me to schedule a time today for the technicians to come to my house to switch the meters, during which we would lose power for 10-15 minutes. The person on the phone was Eric, and he gave his ID number as PO810, ext. 207. I was getting ready to leave (silly me!) when I looked up Dominion’s number online and called them to verify. They said everything is fine on my account and there is no such thing happening as the meter switch.
Victim Location 22033
Type of a scam Utility
Caller from 757-516-4760 left a voicemail that said:
“Good good day welcome to dominion energy this is an automated call to inform you that your account reflects the disconnection order taking place today due to nonpayment history press two to be transferred to our billing department. please contact us at 757-516-4760 to avoid the disconnection sorry for any inconvenience that this may call if you thank you for choosing dominion energy…”
This same number has been reported as a scam and residents all over Virginia have received similar calls. Beware.
Victim Location 23603
Type of a scam Utility
I received a call form this number and the voicemail stated – "Good day. Welcome to Dominion Energy this is an automated call to inform you that your account reflects a disconnection order to take place today due to nonpayment history. press two to be transferred to our billing department or please contact us at 757-516-4760"