SEBASTIAN – Residents and businesses living in Indian River County and Brevard County are receiving calls from Florida Power & Light scammers threatening to disconnect their power for non-payment.
The scammers are calling as FPL workers warning a power shut off unless they pay them immediately. Most of the calls have been to homes, but the scammers are also targeting businesses.
One local business said FPL called him and said his bill was outstanding and an FPL truck was on its way to cut off his power. The caller also knew the account number.
When the business owner told the scammer his bill was already paid, the caller said his payment went to the wrong FPL office and was never received.
The business owner then realized it was a scam, so he played along to get more information on how the scam works. The caller asked him to go to Walgreens and send $498 using a Green Dot MoneyPak card as payment.
The FPL scammers are also getting credit card numbers from people over the phone to pay their bill.
“We would never demand credit card information or ask for a prepaid money card as payment over the phone,” an FPL spokesman said. “We would never ask for personal information from a customer unless they initiated the call.”
FPL advises that if a customer receives such a call demanding money for an outstanding bill, hang on and call the number on their bill to speak with a representative.
The scammers are so good that they are spoofing the victim’s caller ID screen to say “Florida Power & Light.” They do this by gaining access to new phone numbers and changing the caller ID name to read anything they want.
