GREENSBORO, N.C. — Friday. It’s the day of the week we all work toward.
Chances are, Friday is also payday for you. That's a good thing because your bank account may look a little low. Hearing that you're owed money and it's coming to your account is a good thing, right?
“The rep claims to be from Duke Energy, you overpaid your bill, give us your bank account number and we'll put the money back into your account,” explained Byron Tucker of the Alamance County Sherriff’s Office. “Do not do that. It is a scam”.
Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas have a warning about this new utility bill refund scam on the website. If you had any kind of real overpayment, Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas will apply for refunds as a credit to your customer account-- not your bank account.
Also, Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas, like most utilities, will not contact you by phone to verify the information.
June of this year now goes down in the history books as the highest month on record for reported scam attempts targeting Duke Energy customers at 4,000.
So far in 2020, there have been more than 15,000 Duke Energy scam complaints, and we still have five months to go. Compare that with last year's total of 18,000.
The scammers are out there, let me leave you with this piece of advice.
“Money these days is not easy to come by. If it doesn't feel right or sound right, hang up”.