I Fell for a Scam That Seemed Completely Legitimate

Following their instructions seemed like the only option

On a 15-degree day in January, I received a phone call from whom I believed was the electric company ready to shut my power off due to a lack of payment. I panicked enough to consider sending them money immediately.

Too cold to take chances

JCP&L called to inform me that I had an outstanding bill of over $3,000 due to an upgrade from the old-style meters to the new digital ones.

They threatened that if I didn’t pay my bill within 30 minutes, they would terminate my power. Of course I panicked!

It sounded convincing, even though I didn’t understand why they would charge me for meters I had no clue had been installed.

I questioned why I was just now being informed of the upgrade and why I was not given time or a warning to pay this huge bill. She explained that a notice had gone out, and I must have ignored it.

My first thought was to walk outside and check, and sure enough, I did have two new digital meters, as I had two units in my apartment at the time.

Panic set in as I was in my early 70s, and it was a cold day — I knew if they shut off my heat, I would be in trouble with no other option to keep warm.

Offering my credit card to fix the situation quickly, I was turned down. That should have given me a warning that something wasn’t legitimate.

It didn’t make sense that they would refuse a credit card, as that would have only taken minutes to resolve the issue. Her answer was to send a money order from the nearest CVS or Rite Aid as the only form of payment they would accept.

That alone should have made me realize it was a scam.

I told her I did not have that much money in the bank, and she informed me I needed cash to make the purchase. I didn’t know that and didn’t understand why a check wouldn’t suffice, either.

Another red flag

Again, I asked, May I pay it in installments? and she said, “We could let you pay $1,500 instead of $3,000 today, but you still have to do it right now.”

As I begged for more time, she gave me her number and another half hour to send the money, so I could call her back after the transaction was completed.

Finding even $1,500 that quickly was not immediately doable, but I did manage to scrape up a little over $500, and maybe that’s what they counted on — that old people still keep cash in the house.

Being still short $1,000, I called my son, who lived nearby, but he did not have any cash with him either, and he let it be known he was not happy with my inability to keep up with my bills.

I called the woman back, and it was one of the familiar JCP&L messages I had heard in the past. Every message on their answering machine sounded familiar. There was nothing that would lead me to believe it wasn’t the power company.

When I spoke with this woman again and told her I could only gather $500, she told me she’d put the manager on the phone. With that, she put me on hold, and all the messages again seemed like others I’d heard before from JCP&L.

Finally, this other woman comes on the line. By now I’m in tears, and I explain the situation to her, to which she replies, “Then just send the $500, but you have 15 minutes in which to do it, and do not send it to JCP&L directly. You must send it to this other address, as their offices are closed for the weekend.

Desperate to keep my electricity on

I tearfully bundled myself up into heavy winter clothes, grabbed my pocketbook and my money, warmed up my car, and drove to the CVS, which was about 11 minutes away.

As instructed, I went to the Money Order desk and told the woman there what I needed to do. She very politely said, “Hold on a minute, I want to get my manager.” I had no idea why, and I was very confused. Am I not allowed to make money orders with cash?

She disappeared for a few minutes, then came back, followed by this beautiful, tall, well-dressed woman with long fingernails holding a cell phone in her hand, who said she suspected I was being scammed.

My response was, “No, that can’t be, it sounds like JCP&L and I do have two new meters, and they’ll be shutting my power off if I don’t make this transaction immediately.”

She volunteered, “Let’s call JCP&L right now.”

With that, she proceeded to call the main number, spoke to someone for a minute or two, and then put me on the phone with customer service. The real JCP&L customer service!

The woman on the phone looked up my account and put my mind at ease by informing me, “Your account is up to date. You have no outstanding balance, you’re being scammed!”

What? Scammed? By whom?

She continued, “This has been happening a lot lately — it’s a new scam, and as scary as it sounds, believe me, we wouldn’t just shut your power off without a good reason and a warning.”

I told her about the two new meters, and she said, “We supply those. There’s no charge for them, do not send any money to us or anyone else.”

Words couldn’t thank all of them enough.

After realizing what was happening, I gave the phone back to the tall lady, and she told me I wasn’t the first one to come in trying to pay these scammers off, and now that everyone in the store is aware of it, they’re alerting people.

The whole experience left me shaking but furious. When I returned home, I decided to call the scammer lady back, as I knew she was expecting my call. In a nice, even calm tone, I told her that I intended to follow her instructions but was aware of what she was doing and was not going to send her a penny.

Then I couldn’t help myself. I raised my voice and almost yelled into the phone, “Why don’t you get a real job like the rest of us and leave poor old ladies alone?” She hung up on me, and I never heard from her again.

Smarter and wiser

Since then, I have noticed that JCP&L did have a message on their website warning about scammers. They also made it clear they would not shut power off in the middle of winter, and that we should call if we had a problem paying.

They also left a hotline number to use if we think we’re being scammed.

Why would someone do that to someone else?

I was one of the lucky ones, and I thank goodness that those girls in CVS were kind enough to stop me from making a huge mistake.

I’m much more cautious now than before — I screen my phone calls, don’t open emails if I don’t recognize the sender, and I stopped giving out information over the phone.

It shouldn’t be that way, but it is, and that was an experience I will never, ever forget!

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