Seattle City Light Issues Urgent Warning About Scammers

Seattle City Light has issued an alert titled "Bill Collection Scam Resurfaces."

It reads "Seattle City Light urges its customers to guard against telephone con artists posing as utility bill collectors who appear to be targeting customers with Asian surnames. In the past few days, several customers have reported phone calls from con artists claiming to be City Light employees. At least four of those customers had Asian-sounding surnames.

"In the scam, the callers claimed there were problems with payment of the customers’ bills – as little as $16 – and demanded immediate credit card payments to resolve the matter." Fortunately Seattle City Light says the people did not give out their credit card information, but called Seattle City Light to report the incident."

Here is a portion of the Memo:

If a customer is behind on his or her bill and at risk of having the power turned off, City Light sends at least two written warnings asking the customer to contact the utility directly to make a payment.

City Light also wants to remind customers:
Seattle City Light accepts credit card payments at a customer’s request, but never demands or solicits credit card information to pay a bill.
Seattle City Light does not call customers on weekends.
Seattle City Light employees carry identification with the City Light logo and will always display it when asked.

All City Light customers are advised to take down the name and telephone number of anyone who calls and represents themselves as a City Light employee. Also, before customers provide any credit information, they should call City Light at 684-3000 to verify that the request is legitimate. If a customer believes he or she has been contacted by a con artist, they are urged to contact the Seattle Police Department at (206) 625-5011 to report the incident.