High winter heating bills? Don’t fall for this ‘utility assistance’ scam, state warns
You may get a call soon from someone purporting to be a state official offering assistance with your utility bills after the February freeze.
It’s a scam, according to the state’s utility regulation agency.
Several people have reported receiving unsolicited calls from someone masquerading as a representative of the Kansas Corporation Commission, said agency spokeswoman Linda Berry.
While the KCC does offer information on utility bill assistance through its consumer affairs division, it only does that on request and nobody legitimate would call with offers out of the blue, Berry said.
The KCC doesn’t know much about the calls yet, but is investigating.
“The people that have notified us have really not listened,” Berry said. “They’ve pretty much said ‘I’m not interested’ or hung up and then called us to report it. They were very smart in doing that.”
The only time utility customers might receive a legitimate call from the KCC would be if they had contacted the agency first, Berry said.
Whoever is running the scam is apparently trying to take advantage of the public’s concern over gas and electric bills in the wake of last month’s winter cold spell that drove natural gas prices to more than 200 times the normal cost.
Although those costs have not yet flowed through to customer bills, utilities have reported costs for February gas of four times what they usually would spend for a whole year.
The KCC is currently in the process of investigating the situation and trying to figure out how to soften the blow and avoid rate shock for consumers.
Berry strongly advised that anyone receiving an unsolicited call about bill assistance not provide any personal or financial information that could be used for identity theft.
She also urged people targeted to report the call to the KCC and if possible, any names given or the phone number that popped up on caller ID.
“We would love to have that reported to us so that we can continue to look into it and hopefully put a stop to it,” she said.
If you are actually in need of assistance with your utility bills, you can explore various options online by going to the KCC homepage at www.kcc.ks.gov and clicking on “utility assistance programs” on the upper right corner of the home page.
You can also contact consumer affairs at 800-662-0027 or 785-271-3140, or by sending an email to public.affairs@kcc.ks.gov.
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 5:01 AM.
