CLEVELAND, April 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Occasionally,
Dominion East Ohio receives customer reports of scam attempts, via
telephone, email or in person -- with people claiming to be
Dominion employees, who actually do not work for the company.
The company and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio have received recent reports from
customers who have received automated telephone calls purporting to
be from Dominion East Ohio, claiming that they have a large credit
on their bills and that they need to input personal and account
information to secure these credits. These false calls are made to
try to trick customers into providing confidential, personal or
account information for the suspected purpose of identity theft.
Dominion does not call or email customers to obtain personal,
confidential information such as a Social Security number, gas
account number or bank account number.
If anyone calls, texts or emails customers pretending to be a
Dominion representative requesting customers' personal information,
that is just what they are doing - pretending. They may be
trying to take your identity, your money or both. This may be a
scam. Capture the phone number. Hang up. Don't reply. Report the
suspicious activity to local authorities to avoid letting you or
others become another victim.
The same kind of precaution applies to face-to-face situations.
Never allow anyone in your house or apartment who claims to be a
Dominion representative unless you have scheduled an appointment or
reported a problem. And, even in those cases, ask for proper
identification. All Dominion East Ohio employees carry a photo
identification card. If customers are uncertain whether someone
claiming to be a Dominion employee actually works for the company,
they can just request to see the employee's photo identification
card for verification. Dominion East Ohio employees will be
happy to show their company photo ID cards to customers.
Other suspected scam attempts involve pressuring customers to
provide personal information, by claiming natural gas service will
be shut off if immediate payment is not received. Dominion reminds
customers that the company does not make live outbound collection
calls requesting payment on the spot. However, the company does
make recorded, outbound courtesy calls to customers in accordance
with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
If customers have any question about any such encounters, they
should contact Dominion's call center
at 1-800-362-7557. A customer service center
representative can verify if the telephone call or email message is
legitimate, or confirm that one of the company's employees or
contractors is scheduled to work on natural gas service at a
customer's home or business.
Want to be sure? Scams are not limited to impersonating a
utility company. For more information on the wide range of scams,
visit the Better Business Bureau's Top Scams.
Dominion (NYSE: D) is one of the nation's largest producers and
transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 26,400
megawatts of generation, 15,000 miles of natural gas transmission,
gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,600 miles of electric
transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's largest
natural gas storage systems with 1 trillion cubic feet of storage
capacity and serves more than 6 million utility and retail energy
customers. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's
website at www.dom.com.
Contacts: Neil
Durbin, (216) 736-6239 or Email: Neil.J.Durbin@dom.com;
Tracy Oliver, (216) 736-6219 or
Email: Tracy.A.Oliver@dom.com; Peggy
Ehora, (419) 226-4866 or Email Peggy.A.Ehora@dom.com in
Lima; or toll-free in Ohio 1-800-556-4400.
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SOURCE Dominion East Ohio