JEA noticing spike in scam calls

Jacksonville, FL — Crooks are trying to take advantage of JEA customers.

Scammers are calling businesses and customers in the area claiming to be from the utility company and threatening to disconnect their service unless they pay up within 30 minutes.

The calls are coming from an 800 number and the person on the other tells the customer they are behind on their payments or that their utility meter needs to be replaced. The customer is then instructed to go to a local Winn-Dixie, CVS, or Walgreens to buy a ‘MoneyPak” payment card, call them back, and provide them with the information on the back of the card.

Consumer Warrior Clark Howard says this is a scam that has been making the rounds for quite some time. Clark says be prepared for whatever the person on the end of line throws at you because they could make it seem like a legitimate call.

They may have a fair amount of information about you to nothing at all and they're just running a simple scam; or they have a lot of detail about you, maybe even things like down to your account number.

Clark suggests simply thanking the other person on the line and then call the number of the actual utility bill to ensure your account is okay.

JEA says the fraudulent calls have already been reported and at least two of the numbers have been taken down.

The utility company says it will never send a single notification one hour before disconnection. Customers typically receive a handful of notices for several weeks before their services are disconnected. JEA will also never call to request a credit card to avoid disconnection.

If you have received one of these calls you are asked to call JEA at 904.665.6000. Commercial customers may call 904.655.6250 to speak with a JEA Business Support Team representative.