FirstEnergy warns about debit card payment scam

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AKRON ? FirstEnergy Corp. utilities are warning customers about a scam involving a telephone caller posing as an electric utility company employee threatening to shut off power unless an immediate payment is made using a pre-paid debit card such as a Green Dot card.

These pre-paid cards typically are available at convenience stores and drug stores and can be used by consumers to pay bills or add money to online accounts. However, Green Dot cards are not officially sanctioned by FirstEnergy as a bill payment method.

?Customers should know that if they get a call from someone demanding payment of their electric bill by using a Green Dot card they are being scammed and should report the crime to local authorities,? said Ronald I. Green, vice president of customer service at FirstEnergy. ?While we may phone a customer whose bill is in arrears in order to remind them that a payment is due, we would explain how a payment can be made using established payment options.?

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I pay my utilities with cashiers checks becuase it's further proof I paid it... Plus their websites suck.

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If I got one of these fake phone calls, I'd gleefully say, 'fine, go right ahead and shut it off. We were tired of grandma breathing on her iron lung anyway ...' :D click

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I pay my utilities with cashiers checks becuase it's further proof I paid it... Plus their websites suck.

I pay mine online for the bills we do have, but for gas and electric we use pre-pay meters so we don't get a bill

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^ Pre-paid meters ? The devil you say ...

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^ Pre-paid meters ? The devil you say ...

:D Yup, PITA sometimes but nice not getting a bill