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East Tennessee utility companies warn customers of telephone scam

KUB said it received several reports from customers in the past few days that scammers were calling them posing as billing representatives.

Three local utilities are warning people about a telephone scam that is targeting its customers.

KUB, Oak Ridge Electric and LCUB said they have received several reports from customers in the past few days that had received a call from someone claiming to be a utility representative, demanding payment from customers over the phone or their power would be shut off.

KUB said the calls are scams and reminds customers that it never uses cold calls for final bill notifications or service terminations. It said it instead leaves pink door hangers in those cases. LCUB and the City of Oak Ridge also said they don't contact customers by phone demanding final payment or threaten immediate discontinuation of service.

Another dead giveaway that the caller is trying to scam you will be if they ask for forms of monetary compensation that aren't easy to track, such as prepaid cards.

KUB has dealt with similar scams over the past year, including some that spoofed its service numbers to appear as the company and other local agencies on caller IDs.

Related: Experts warn of phony calls to steal money

People receiving the call or similar ones out of the blue asking for banking or personal information should never give out that information over the phone, and should immediately hang up and report it to the proper authorities such as local police.

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