SCE SCAM Alert - Southern California Edison Scam targets Residence & business owners in Hemet

Below is a story from

GEORGE'S PIZZA 

2920 E. Florida Ave #105 Hemet, CA 92544

Story by Eddie George

Aka The Crazy Guy With The Lazy Eye

HemetEyeNews.Com

How I Got Scammed

Tuesday October 26, 2015 at 1:30 PM, I received a phone call on the business line from a man calling himself Mark from Southern California Edison.  He stated he was a technician scheduled to perform a service disconnect later that day between 3 and 6.  I informed him that I just took over this business as the new owner 2 weeks prior and it should be a transfer of service and not a disconnect.  He instructed me to call his supervisor in the Disconnect Department to settle the matter.  He told me to call (888) 723-9733 extension 713 and give them the work order number, 084716P.  When I called the number, an automated recording said “Thank you for calling Southern California Edison.  If you would like to report a power outage or down power line, please press 1.  If you know your party’s extension, you may enter it at any time.  For customer service, press 0”.  

I entered extension 713 and a man announced himself as Raymond, employee ID 427E.  I told him I spoke to Mark and need to cancel the disconnect order.  Raymond told me there was a balance on the account of $998.12 that needed to be settled before he could cancel the disconnect work order.  I told him that I just took the business over 2 weeks ago and he apologized for the inconvenience, but the balance needed to be settled right away to prevent the disconnect.  He explained to me that the amount would be credited to my account within the next 7 days and for my inconvenience, he would discount my kilowatt rate by 20% for 3 months.  Still thinking I am talking to SoCal Edison, I assumed this balance was from the previous owner and I would settle the matter with him

Raymond then gives me very clear instructions that I need to go to the nearest Southern California Edison payment center and pay this amount.  He told me I could do this at the Stater Brothers located at 3200 W. Florida Ave, Hemet.  He told me that the payment had to be in cash and that a check or credit card payment would take 24 hours to record and that would not cancel the disconnect order.  This didn’t seem unusual to me because I remember my mom paying utility bills at the grocery store when I was a kid.  Raymond made it very clear that when I went to make the payment, that I tell the person at the payment center, that I need to do a reload it procedure for this to work.  He told me it was very important to do this and if I did it any other way, the disconnect order would not cancel.  Raymond asked for my cell phone number and asked me to call him when I got there and he would help me do this correctly.

I quickly tell my employee what is happening and ask him to watch the store while I take care of this.  My employee is off at 2 PM and I don’t have much time.  About halfway to Stater Brothers, Raymond calls me on my cell phone and asks if I am there yet.  This is an urgent matter as we are approaching the disconnect time and we need to call of the technician.  I went into Stater Brothers and asked the clerk where to pay my Edison Bill and she tells me they start doing that tomorrow.  When I called Raymond back to tell him, he instructed me to go inside and next to the ice machine was a display of gift cards.  He told me to buy 2 “Reloadit” cards for $500 each and give him the confirmation number from the receipt.  He then asked me to scratch off and get the code on the back of each one.  After that, he put me on hold for a few minutes.  When he came back on the line, he said the disconnect order had been canceled and that the technician was happy to go home early.  Raymond then told me the credit department would be calling me the next day to discuss the details of the credit.

The following morning, I met with the previous owner and told him the story and he told me Edison never asks for a cash payment and that I had been scammed.  I felt a huge pit in my stomach because I just lost $1,000.  At 3 PM that day, I received a call from the same number and he said his name was John Mathews from Southern California Edison and he was the Team Executive of Resolutions, employee ID 7E99.  He told me he was processing my credit, but in order to do that I had to bring my account balance to zero before I could get the credit.  I asked him how I had a balance to pay when I only owned this place for 2 weeks and he repeated that I was getting a credit, but needed to bring my account balance to zero.  I asked him how much that was, and he said I had to pay $998.12.  I pointed out that I paid the exact same amount the day before.  I demanded to speak to his supervisor and he hung up on me.

After speaking to “John Mathews”, I called the real Edison and spoke to Paul, who said he hears of stories like mine every day and all he can do is turn the information over to the Attorney General.  These guys are obviously professionals and I feel like an idiot for falling for this scam, but the more people who hear my story, the better prepared small business owners like me can be.

Travis and Lisa Osterloh

GEORGE'S PIZZA

951-765-9955

2920 E. Florida Ave #105

Hemet, CA 92544