ST. LOUIS, Dec. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Just ahead of the
holiday season, Ameren is providing tips to its customers to
safeguard them from scam artists who are using intimidation and
other tactics to defraud the company's customers in Missouri and Illinois.
Ameren urges customers to be on alert for phone calls from scam
artists who threaten disconnection of utility service unless a
payment with a Green Dot Money Pak card or other pre-paid card is
made immediately. Scammers are also mimicking voice recordings that
appear to be from utilities to persuade customers to make an
immediate payment.
"We want to alert our customers that we have also received
reports of door-to-door scams and suspicious emails demanding
payment," said Tim Reagan, director
of corporate security at Ameren. "To safeguard all of our
customers, it's important that anyone who has been subject to these
intimidation tactics call Ameren and their local police
department."
Ameren offers these tips against scammers:
- Ameren never demands personal, account or financial information
for immediate payment. Never give your credit card, debit card,
Social Security, ATM, checking or saving account numbers to anyone
who comes to your home, calls or sends an email requesting this
information.
- Ameren employees never come to your home without a scheduled
appointment for reported outages or gas leak orders. Never let
anyone into your home claiming to be from the utility unless they
show proper Ameren badge identification. Our employees are not
allowed to take payments in the field.
- Ameren never sends emails that include attachments, unless
you've contacted us to specifically request information. Never open
attachments unless you've contacted Ameren for the
information.
If you suspect someone is impersonating an Ameren employee, end
the conversation and immediately call Ameren Illinois at
1.800.755.5000 or Ameren Missouri at 1.800.552.7583. Customers can
also follow Ameren on social media to receive the latest updates on
scams.
St. Louis-based Ameren
Corporation powers the quality of life for 2.4 million electric
customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a
64,000-square-mile area through its Ameren Missouri and Ameren
Illinois rate-regulated utility subsidiaries. Ameren Illinois
provides electric delivery and transmission service as well as
natural gas delivery service while Ameren Missouri provides
vertically integrated electric service, with generating capacity of
10,300 megawatts, and natural gas delivery service. Ameren
Transmission Company of Illinois
develops regional electric transmission projects. Follow the
company on Twitter @AmerenCorp. For more information, visit
Ameren.com.
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SOURCE Ameren Corporation