Last week a member reported a phone scam, in which a person pretending to be a SPEC employee threatened to disconnect her power unless she made a payment immediately. Luckily, she didn’t make the payment. Instead, she hung up the phone and called to let us know about the incident the next day.

Scams seem to be more prevalent these days and are certainly not a new challenge in the cooperative world. A Missouri cooperative had an interesting run-in with a scam artist in October. Like the scam attempted on our member last week, the perpetrator threatened to disconnect power in a matter of minutes if a payment wasn’t made immediately. The perpetrator then gave the member a call-back number where a payment could be made.

What makes this case different is that when the member called the number, they heard the actual co-op phone recording with a fake menu item tacked on at the end. When the member pressed the number 7, the scammer picked up and answered as the co-op.

When the co-op got wind of the scam, they contacted the attorney general. Then they took their defense one step further by calling the scam number, announcing they were the real co-op and telling the perpetrator to shut it down.

Be prepared: tips for co-op members

These recent scams are certainly a reminder to safeguard your personal information and always verify who you’re talking too. Please take a minute to look over this advice to help keep yourself safe.

• San Patricio Electric employees will never call or email you to demand immediate payment. As a courtesy, the cooperative may call to remind you when your bill is past due. However, we will send two letters to you before we make such a call. In addition, we use an automated phone system and never ask for direct payment.

• If you’re already a member, SPEC will also never call or email to ask for personal information, such as your full social security number. We already have the information we need on file from your membership application, and it’s kept securely in our system.

• Look for our logo. Not all scams are done over the phone. Sometimes scammers go door to door. To be certain you’re dealing with an actual SPEC employee, look for our logo. Our employees wear uniforms and drive vehicles marked with our logo. And any of our contractors should drive vehicles with our logo too. If you’re ever in doubt, call us to verify whether it is an employee or not.

• Beware of red flags. There are a couple of things that should warn you of a scammer. Typically, they will ask you to wire money or pay with a prepaid debit card. And they will likely demand payment immediately. They might also ask for you to confirm your credit card number, the security code on your credit card or your full social security number. Do not give out this information or make a payment if you come across these red flags.

• Don’t trust caller ID. Most of the time, a scammer will call from another state or country. If you look at the caller ID, it may be obvious that it’s not SPEC. However, some scammers have the ability to hide where they are calling from, so don’t assume you can trust the caller ID.

• Contact your local law enforcement agency. If you’re ever contacted in a suspicious manner, or believe you may be a victim or a scam, contact your local law enforcement agency. Give them any information you can, such as a phone number, email address or license plate number. They may be able to track down the perpetrators.

• Contact SPEC too. If you receive a phone, email or door-to-door scam regarding your SPEC account, we want to know about it. Once we know of an issue we can help spread the word to other members. We don’t want anyone falling victim to these schemes.

How to contact SPEC

You can reach us by phone at 361-364-2220 or 888-740-2220. You may email PR Coordinator, Brittany Williams at pr@sanpatricioelectric.org.  And you’re also welcome to fill out a form on our “Contact Us” page and we will get back to you as soon as possible.