Type of a scam Debt Collections
Received the following email, it contains several errors.
These were the red flags: In Alberta, utilities are not provided by the "state", nor by the province. The email address used is not a government of Canada email address. Finally, there is no Public Utilities Service of Canada.
Dear Client,
It is Greg Thompson. I am the officer of the Public Utilities Service of Canada. I represent the Customer Relations Department, whose primary function is to contact Canadian residents in cases when notification on issues regarding public utilities services is needed. Here, I have to give you a notice that, unhappily, you have a considerable arrears in payments for public utilities commission. More specifically, the accounting office of the state service has discovered that, accessed today, you have the overdue payment for 4 months amounting to $354.33. Ordinarily, we do not respond to debts of citizens unless their overdue period exceeds 3 months. In this very case, the overdue terms transcend the quarter, so I am writing this message to you. For your convenience, here is the full report including: a) full diagram of payment debts for the whole abovementioned period; b) total amount of overdue payments; c) comprehensive set of further recommendations to remedy the situation. At the moment, you have 2 days to resolve the problem since you receive this message. After this period, we will have to halt provision of public utilities service for your accommodation. So please study the report and be guided with instructions therein.
You can download the report file from the official Public Utilities Service website here: https://utilities.canada.gov/report/12895831237.doc.
Best Regards,
Greg Thompson,
Customer Relations Department Specialist,
Public Utilities Service of Canada